LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


p.3QeEH. 


Fiatn. 


>ott>, 


h> « \  r 


iol&, 


In  ppmopiani. 


Ifsaac  Iflewton  Hrnolb, 

Nov.  jo,  1813— Apr.  24,  1884. 

Hrtbur  /Iftason  Hrnolfc, 

May  ij,  1858— Apr.  26,  iSyj. 


"  3  am  come  Hint  thet)  migljt  ijcroe  life,  anb  ttjat  tljet)  ratgljt  tjaue 
it  more  atambanttij."— St  Jotin,  ?.  10. 


CHICAGO: 
FERGUS    PRINTING    COMPANY, 

1885. 


B, 


CONT E N  T S 


Brief  Biographical   Sketch,  5 

The   Last   Rites,           -  15 

Tribute  of  Bishop   Harris,       -              -  -            16 

Tribute  of  Dr.  H.  N.  Powers,     .  27 

Tribute  of  Dr.  J.  A.  Bolles,  -            29 

Tribute  of  Geo.  W.  Lay,          -  35 

Chicago  Historical  Society,  36 

Address  of  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne,  -                   39 

Tribute  of  Hon.  Thomas  Drummond,  6$ 

Tribute  of  Hon.  Van   H.  Higgins,  -                   65 

Tribute  of  Wm.  F.  DeWolf,  -  -            71 

Illinois  State  Bar  Association, 

Address  of  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne,    -  -            73 

Chicago  Literary  Club,  Memorial,      -  -                   9° 

Lincoln-Park  Commissioners,  Resolution,  -           92 

Union  Catholic  Library  Association,  Resolution,  93 

Letter  of  Geo.  W.  Lay,  95 

Arthur  Mason  Arnold,  Memorial,        -  -                  105 

Extracts  from   Mr.  Arnold's  Journal,  107 

Newspaper  Extracts,        -              -  -                  109 


IFsaac  IRewton  Hrnolb, 

BRIEF    BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH. 

ISAAC  NEWTON  ARNOLD  was  born  Nov.  30, 
18 1 3,  at  Hartwick,  near  Cooperstown,  Otsego  County, 
New  York.  His  father,  George  Washington  Arnold,  was 
a  physician  of  honorable  standing  and  descent.  His 
family  in  America  dates  back  to  the  time  of  the  earliest 
settlement  of  New  England,  some  members  of  it  being 
associates  of  Roger  Williams,  and  the  wonderful  men  who 
first  proclaimed  civil  and  religious  freedom  on  this  con- 
tinent, and  in  Rhode  Island  established  the  first  real 
Republic  ever  vouchsafed  to  man. 

Reared  among  the  romantic  hills  of  Otsego,  he  drank 
in  from  his  earliest  childhood  the  very  spirit  of  poetry. 
Intense  love  for  the  home  of  his  youth  clung  to  him 
through  life,  and  in  his  last  sickness  his  mind  would  often 
wander  back,  and  a  longing  for  a  sight  of  the  blue  hills 
of  Otsego  found  expression  on  his  trembling  lips.  The 
following  extracts  from  his  journal  show  his  deep  affection 
for  Cooperstown,  and  the  whole  of  Otsego  County,  crowded 
as  was  his  memory,  with  the  rich  associations  of  boyhood, 
youth,  and  early  manhood: 


6  ISAAC    X.   ARNOLD. 

"COOPERSTOWN,  September,  1874. 

"As  we  sailed  down  the  lake  in  the  little  steamer 
'Natty  Bumbo,'  and  as  we  approached  the  village,  which 
I  had  not  visited  for  two  years,  my  mind  was  busy  with 
the  past,  the  days  of  boyhood  and  youth  and  early  asso- 
ciates; and  as  I  approached  the  shore  and  saw  few  familiar 
faces,  I  was  impressed  with  the  fact  that  more,  many 
more,  of  my  old  friends  sleep  under  the  evergreens  and 
sugar-maples  of  yonder  cemetery  than  I  can  find  now  in 
the  streets  of  Cooperstown.  Although  it  rained  on  Fri- 
day, the  rain  did  not  prevent  an  early  visit  to  scenes  and 
localities  of  great  beauty,  and  ever  interesting  from  early 
associations. 

"Judge  Cooper  settled  here  at  the  foot  of  Otsego 
Lake,  and  at  the  source  of  the  Susquehanna,  and  from 
him  one  of  the  most  beautiful  villages  in  America  takes 
its  name.  His  descendants  still  have  their  home  here, 
and  contribute  much  to  a  social  circle  unsurpassed  by 
any  in  taste,  refinement,  and  intelligence. 

"Nothing  among  the  country  churches  in  America,, 
scarcely  any  among  the  rural  churches  of  England,  equals 
in  beauty  the  location  and  surroundings  of  this  little 
church;  on  the  bank  of  the  Susquehanna,  almost  under 
the  shadow  of  Mt.  Vision ;  the  church-yard  is  shaded  by 
the  noblest  specimens  of  the  pine,  the  elm,  and  the  sugar- 
maple  to  be  found  anywhere.     Already  the  brilliant  tints. 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  7 

of  autumn  light  up  the  scene,  and  contrast  most  beauti- 
fully with  the  deep,  dark  green  of  the  murmuring  pines. 

'Here  the  rude  forefathers  of  the  hamlet  sleep.' 

It  is  more  beautiful  than  Stoke-Pogis  Church,  and  might 
well  have  inspired  the  elegy: 

■■•Here  the  sacred  calm  that  breathes  around, 
Bids  every  fierce,  tumultuous  passion  cease: 
In  still,  small  accents,  breathing  from  the  ground 
A  grateful  earnest  of  eternal  peace.' 

"Aug.  6,  1875. — Yesterday  visited  Hartwick  and  my 
birthplace.  The  old  home  is  little  changed  in  its  exterior. 
I  visited  the  little  study  where  I  translated  the  sixth  book 
of  the  .Eneid,  then  I  walked  to  the  creek,  the  mill,  drank 
from  the  old  moss-covered  bucket." 

Mr.  Arnold  was  twice  married.  His  first  marriage 
was  with  Catherine  E.  Dorrance  of  Pittsfield,  Mass.,  who 
departed  this  life,  October  20th,  1839,  leaving  one  son, 
Edward  Mason,  who  died  in  1844.  His  second  marriage 
was  with  Harriet  Augusta  Dorrance,  a  sister  of  his  former 
wife,  August  4th,  1 84 1.  Nine  children  were  born  of  this 
marriage.  Reading  law  in  the  offices  of  Richard  Cooper 
and  Judge  Morehouse  of  Cooperstown,  Mr.  Arnold  was 
admitted    to   the  bar  in    1835,  and,  after   a   short  copart- 


8  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

nership  with  Judge  Morehouse,  settled  permanently  in 
Chicago  in  1836,  and  at  once  commenced  an  eminently- 
successful  professional  career,  which  soon  placed  him 
among  the  foremost  of  the  distinguished  men  who  from 
about  that  time  adorned  and  made  illustrious  the  bar 
and  forum  of  Illinois. 

Mr.  Arnold  was  confirmed  in  the  summer  of  1844  by 
the  Rt.-Rev.  Philander  Chase,  the  first  bishop  of  Illinois, 
at  St.  James'  Church,  Chicago.  On  the  same  interesting 
occasion,  his  eldest  daughter  Katharine  was  christened. 
These  two  events  occurring  together,  made  each  more 
solemn  and  beautiful.  His  interest  in  and  love  for  the 
church  extended  through  his  riper  years,  and  each  and 
all  the  rectors  of  St.  James'  were  held  among  his  much- 
loved  friends.  Although  not  regular  in  his  attendance  at 
the  Holy  Communion,  yet  he,  on  special  and  marked 
occasions,  accompanied  his  family  to  the  altar  and  par- 
took of  the  Bread  and  Wine  at  the  table  of  our  Lord. 
His  early  religious  education  having  been  outside  of  the 
Episcopal  church,  he  had  something  of  the  feeling  of  the 
Scotch  Puritan,  that  this  Sacrament  is  too  sacred  for 
frequent  observance.  He  also  had  a  deep  sense  of  his 
own  unworthiness. 

In  his  own  home,  Mr.  Arnold  adorned  "the  grand  old 
name  of  gentleman."     At  his  table,  he  dispensed  an  elc- 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH.  9 

gant  hospitality,  graced  by  all  that  refined  taste  can  add 
to  kindness  of  heart  and  gracious  welcome.  Books, 
(lowers,  pictures,  and  the  society  of  refined  men  and 
women,  with  occasional  resort  to  the  simple  beauties  of 
nature,  were  his  pastimes  when  seeking  restoration  from 
toil  and  stud}'.  Among  the  many  pleasant  recollections 
which  cluster  about  the  memory  of  our  departed  friend, 
is  the  fond  remembrance  of  Christmas  nights,  which  it 
was  his  wont  to  keep.  Inviting  some  of  his  most  intimate 
friends,  with  their  children,  the  evening  was  spent  in  tell- 
ing and  listening  to  stories  and  playing  simple  games, 
while  the  mistletoe  and  other  evergreens,  mingled  with 
choice  flowers  from  his  conservatory,  added  beauty  to  the 
"flow  of  soul."  These  lovely  gatherings  were  always 
brought  to  a  close  with  the  "Virginia  Reel,"  led  off  by 
the  host,  and  in  which  he  joined  with  all  the  ardor  of 
youth. 

Mr.  Arnold  was  possessed  of  many  lovely  traits  of 
character,  not  likely  to  be  known  outside  of  his  immedi- 
ate circle  of  friends.  His  love  for  children.  His  wise 
consideration  for  his  widowed  sisters  and  other  relations 
and  friends,  who,  in  the  providence  of  God,  were,  in  a 
measure,  thrown  upon  his  care,  were  beautiful  to  behold. 
Though  blessed  with  a  lovely  family  and  an  abundance 
of  the  good  things  of  life,  he  was  subjected  to  severe 
trials,  and  passed  through  the  deep  waters  of  affliction. 


IO  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

After  the  great  fire  of  1871,  when  all  his  property 
was  destroyed,  he  met  the  necessities  of  the  case  with  a 
lion-heartedness  worthy  of  all  praise ;  and  in  a  year's 
time,  found  himself  once  more  at  home  in  his  own  house, 
so  feelingly  described  by  him  in  the  following  extract 
from  his  journal,  dated  October  8th,  1872: 

"  In  my  own  house,  under  my  own  roof-tree  again. 
A  year  today  wandering  on  the  sands  and  fleeing  to  the 
light-house  to  escape  the  conflagration.  It  has  been  a 
year  of  work  and  effort,  not  without  comfort  and  gratifi- 
cation. I  desire  to  express  gratitude  and  thanks  to  God 
for  preservation,  for  health,  for  health  of  my  family,  and 
for  restoration  to  home." 

In  April,  1873,  it  became  necessary  to  remove  the 
remains  of  such  of  his  family  as  had  been  interred  in  the 
old  city  cemetery.  We  copy  from  his  journal  Mr.  Arnolds 
own  touching  account  of  the  performance  of  the  sad  duty: 

"April  1 8th,  1873.— Today  attended  the  sad  removal 
of  the  remains  of  some  of  my  family,  who  were  interred 
in  the  city  cemetery: 

"Catherine  E.  Arnold,  died  October  20th,  1839,  aged 
twenty-four  years;  died  at  the  old  Lake  House  in  Chicago. 

"Our  son,  Edward  Mason  Arnold,  died  March,  1844, 
at  my  old  house,  [northeast]  corner  of  Ontario  and  Dear- 
born streets;  aged  four  years  and  seven  months. 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  1 1 

"George  Arnold,  my  son  by  my  present  wife,  died 
1845,  aged  seven  months. 

"Frances  Isabella  Arnold,  died  1846,  aged  five  months. 

"  Lizzie  Mason  Arnold,  died  1854,  aged  one  month. 

"  It  was  sad  to  disturb  their  repose,  but  they  will 
sleep  as  placidly  in  Graceland;  alas,  can  they  not  whisper 
•one  word  of  the  hereafter  ?  Where  are  they  ?  Do  they 
know  anything  of  us  ?  Are  they  conscious  that  they  are 
not  forgotten?  As  one  stands  by  the  grave,  how  unavoida- 
ble the  wish  that  we  had  done  more  to  make  them  happy." 

The  saddest  and  heaviest  shock  ever  received  by  Mr. 
Arnold  was  in  the  death  of  his  only  surviving  son,  Arthur 
Mason,  drowned  April  26,  1873.  We  dare  not  enter  upon 
the  narration  of  this  heart-rending  event.  Fortunately,  a 
■cooler  head,  with  steadier  hand  and  no  less  loving  heart, 
has  already  recorded  the  sad  story  of  the  dear  boy,  which 
is  herewith  presented  to  those  who  "knew  him  but  to  love 
him,  who  named  him  but  to  praise." 

At  the  time  of  this  sad  calamity,  the  family  were 
about  to  make  the  tour  of  Europe,  their  steamer  appoint- 
ments having  been  secured.  This  European  trip  was  at 
first  given  up;  but,  after  a  short  time,  feeling  that  some- 
thing must  be  done  to  in  some  measure  divert  their 
thoughts  from  their  irreparable  loss,  they  decided  to  re- 
sume their  plans  so  far  as  they  could,  and  undertake  their 


12  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

anticipated  journey.  This  visit  to  the  old  world  was  made 
in  the  spring  of  1873;  Mr.  Arnold  with  his  family  landing 
at  Liverpool  on  June  1st,  1873.  The  wonders  of  the  con- 
tinent, the  beauties  of  the  mother-country,  the  introduction 
to  and  entertainment  by  the  intellectual  and  cultivated 
society  of  that  grand  old  home  of  his  ancestors,  all  com- 
bined to  divert  the  thoughts  of  the  devoted  parent  from 
the  dark  cloud  that  continually  hung  over  him  and  re- 
minded him  of  hopes  banished  from  his  worldly  existence. 
Returning  home,  after  a  year  spent  in  Europe,  he  again 
devoted  himself  in  earnest  to  literary  work,  and  in  the 
autumn  of  1879,  the  "Life  of  Benedict  Arnold"  was  given 
to  the  public. 

In  June,  1881,  Mr.  Arnold  made  his  second  visit  to 
England,  having  been  invited  by  the  Royal  Historical 
Society  to  read  before  that  august  body  his  celebrated 
paper  on  "The  Life  and  Character  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 
While  in  England,  he  visited  the  Rev.  Edward  Gladwyn 
Arnold,  a  grandson  of  Benedict  Arnold,  and  found  this 
gentleman  to  be  a  distinguished  clergyman  of  the  Church 
of  England,  honored  and  beloved  by  those  to  whom  he 
administered  the  holy  duties  of  his  high  calling.  On  his 
return  home,  Mr.  Arnold  devoted  his  time  to  study  and 
literary  pursuits,  most  congenial  to  his  tastes.  His  inter- 
est in  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  was  very  deep,  and 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH.  13 

having  been  one  of  its  founders,  he  gave  much  considera- 
tion to  its  welfare  and  progress.  The  revision  and  com- 
pletion of  his  work  on  Lincoln  occupied  much  of  his  time, 
even  up  to  the  closing  hours  of  life. 

The  journal  of  Mr.  Arnold,  under  date  of  November 
30th,  1883,  contains  a  few  lines  contemplating  the  return 
of  his  birthday,  so  beautiful  that  we  present  them  without 
comment: 

"November  jot/i,  1883.  My  birthday;  seventy  years 
old!  Threescore  and  ten!  Death  must  be  at  no  great 
distance.  I  wish  to  live  only  so  long  as  I  may  be,  to 
some  extent,  useful,  and  not  when  I  shall  be  a  burden. 
May  my  remaining  days  be  useful  and  innocent." 

The  last  two  years  of  the  life  of  Mr.  Arnold  were 
happily  passed.  His  work  on  the  life  of  Lincoln,  his  cor- 
respondence, foreign  and  domestic,  occasional  trips  to  his 
farm  on  Rock  River,  visits  from  distinguished  friends  at 
home  and  abroad,  an  appointment  as  visitor  on  the  Board 
of  Examiners  at  West  Point,  June  1st,  1883,  given  him  by 
Hon.  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  secretary  of  war,  and  son  of  his 
old  friend;  these,  and  many  other  interesting  events,  all 
contributed  to  most  pleasurable  emotions. 

Thus  in  a  feeble  way  has  a  friend  of  many  years 
endeavored  to  add  his  mite  in  praise  and  commemoration 
of  Isaac   Newton   Arnold.      In   closing   his   address,   read 


14  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

before  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  on  the  life  and  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  Arnold,  Judge  Higgins,  with  great  good  taste 
and  absolute  truth,  quoted  the  language  of  Edmund  Burke 
with  which  we  beg  to  close  this  unworthy  eulogium: 

"  In  all  the  qualities  in  which  personal  merit  has  a 
place,  in  culture,  in  erudition,  in  genius,  in  honor,  in  gen- 
erosity, in  humanity,  in  every  sentiment,  and  in  even- 
liberal  accomplishment,  he  was  the  peer  of  any  man." 

W.  F.  DeW. 


THE    LAST    RITES. 

I  Revised  from  the  Chicago  Tribune,  April  28,  18S4.J 

rI^HE  funeral  of  the  Hon.  Isaac  Newton  Arnold  took 
X  place  yesterday  afternoon,  at  two  o'clock,  from  St. 
James'  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  at  the  southeast 
corner  of  Cass  and  Huron  streets.  The  esteem  in  which 
Mr.  Arnold  was  held  was  shown  by  the  large  number  of 
prominent  people  who  gathered  to  pay  the  last  honors 
to  the  deceased.  At  the  church  nearly  every  seat  was 
occupied,  many  persons  coming  from  a  distance  to  show 
their  love  for  Mr.  Arnold.  Seats  on  either  side  of  the 
main  aisle  were  reserved  for  members  of  the  family,  inti- 
mate friends,  and  pall-bearers.  The  actual  bearers  of  the 
casket  were  family  servants  and  men  who  had  been  in  the 
employ  of  Mr.  Arnold.  The  honorary  pall-bearers  were 
Judge  Thomas  Drummond,  J.  Young  Scammon,  Judge- 
Lambert  Tree,  Edwin  H.  Sheldon,  Frederick  H.  Winston, 
William  F.  DeWolf,  Judge  Mark  Skinner,  E.  B.Washburne, 
Lyman  Trumbull,  Henry  W.  King,  George  Payson,  and 
Cyrus  Bentley. 

The  remains  were  met  at  the  entrance  to  the  church 
by  Bishop  McLaren,  Bishop  Harris,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Locke, 
Canon  Knowles,  Canon  Street,  and  Rev.  Morton  Stone. 
As  they  were  borne  down  the  aisle,  Bishop  Harris  recited 


1 6  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

that  portion  of  the  service  for  the  dead,  beginning,  "I  am 
the  resurrection  and  the  life,"  the  organist  in  the  mean- 
time playing  Buck's  "Evening."  When  the  casket  was 
placed  in  front  of  the  chancel,  the  choir  sang  the  burial 
anthem,  "  Lord,  let  me  know  the  length  of  my  days." 
After  the  lesson,  "Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul"  was  sung. 

TRIBUTE    OF    BISHOP    HARRIS. 

Bishop  Samuel  S.  Harris  then  delivered  a  brief 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased.  As  his  address 
was  not  written,  and  was  only  imperfectly  reported,  a  bare 
outline  of  it  is  all  that  can  now  be  given: 

On  occasions  like  this,  he  said,  the  church's  beautiful 
service  would  ordinarily  seem  enough.  In  such  an  hour  it 
is  usually  best  to  listen  only  to  the  church's  voice  of  hope 
and  consolation  in  her  solemn  office  for  the  burial  of  the 
dead.  But  this  large  concourse  of  mourning  citizens  tells 
us  that  no  ordinary  sorrow  has  called  us  together  today; 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  general  grief,  affection  craves  the 
privilege  of  paying  a  brief  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one 
who  was  deeply  honored  and  beloved.  The  life  of  Mr. 
Arnold  was  an  important  factor  in  the  history  of  this  city's 
development  and  growth.  Through  many  years  of  ardent 
and  arduous  professional  labor,  he  won  and  kept  a  place 
in  the  front  rank  of  the  great  lawyers  of  the  Northwest. 
His  political  services  at  the  Nation's  capital  in  the  coun- 


TRIBUTE   OF    BISHOP    HARRIS.  I J 

try's  hour  of  peril  had  been  eminent  and  distinguished; 
and  throughout  the  whole  of  his  professional  and  public 
career,  he  had  always  been  the  friend  of  the  afflicted,  the 
defender  of  the  oppressed.  The  speaker  preferred,  how- 
ever, to  think  of  him  in  the  character  in  which  he  knew 
him  best :  as  the  tender  husband,  the  loving  father,  the 
humble  Christian,  the  good  neighbor,  the  high-souled  man, 
the  faithful  friend.  More  entirely  than  that  of  most  men, 
his  life  was  full- rounded  and  complete.  His  last  days 
were  full  of  honor  and  peace.  Books,  pictures,  friends, 
those  whom  he  loved  were  all  around  him,  and  in  his  in- 
tercourse with  them,  he  found  the  highest  joy  of  his  earthly 
life;  and  in  the  midst  of  this  serene  joy,  he  found  an  added 
happiness  in  looking  forward  to  a  more  blessed  existence 
beyond  the  grave. 

Not  long  before  his  death  he  wrote  a  paper,  entitled, 
"The  Layman's  Faith."  Perhaps  I  can  not  do  better,  the 
speaker  said,  than  read  some  extracts  from  this  remark- 
able paper,  which  will  come  to  us  in  this  hour  as  the  voice 
of  our  beloved  friend  from  beyond  the  grave: 

"  'If  a  man  die  shall  he  live  again?  '        Is  there  a  God,  our 
great  Father/     Has  He  revealed  Himself  to  man?" 

"  These  be  mighty  questions.  They  have  agitated 
man  since  the  earliest  records  of  his  existence. 

"For  me,  these  questions  must  soon  be  solved  —  by 


1 8  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

death.  Not  many  years,  at  most,  can  elapse  before  I  shall 
'sleep  with  my  fathers;'  'Lie  in  cold  obstruction's  apathy,' 
or,  as  I  hope  and  believe,  live  again  in  a  brighter  life. 

"  As  we  have  all  stood  sadly  around  the  open  grave 
of  those  dear  to  us  as  life  itself,  we  have  yearned  to  know, 
to  have  an  authoritative  answer  to  the  question,  are  we 
mere  mortals,  born  only  to  die;  or  immortals,  with  a  never- 
ending  destiny  ?  As  we  decide  this  question,  life  is  likely 
to  be  dreary,  dull,  coarse,  sensual;  or  bright,  hopeful,  ele- 
vated, and  pure.  As  a  man  'thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is 
he.'  If  we  believe  we  are  animals,  and  nothing  more,  it  is 
not  unnatural  we  should  act  like  them.  '  Let  us  eat  and 
drink,  for  tomorrow  we  die.' 

"  But  if  we  really  believe  we  are  in  very  truth  the  im- 
mortal children  of  an  eternal  Father,  making  up  here  a 
record  for  eternity,  we  rise  to  the  awful  dignity  and  re- 
sponsibility of  immortals,  and  we  ought  to  live  with  a 
purity  and  grace  worth}'  of  a  god. 

"  I  am  here  tonight  not  to  reproach,  nor  to  sneer  at 
those  who  differ  from  me,  not  to  try  to  say  bright  things  if 
1  could,  not  to  attempt  a  logical  argument,  but  to  throw 
out  in  a  somewhat  desultory  way  some  thoughts  which  may 
possibly  aid  some  honest  brother  in  solving  these  great 
questions.  I  shall  try  at  least  to  show  that  we  may  rea- 
sonably entertain  a  '  comfortable,  holy  hope  '  of  immortal 
life. 


TRIBUTE   OF   BISHOP    HARRIS.  1 9 

"  Robert  Ingersoll  said  with  a  touching  pathos  over 
his  brother's  grave,  a  pathos  which  makes  his  irreverence 
the  more  shocking  :  '  Life  is  a  narrow  vale  between  the 
cold  and  barren  peaks  of  two  eternities.  We  strive  in  vain 
to  look  beyond  the  heights.  We  cry  aloud,  and  the  only 
answer  is  the  echo  of  our  wailing  cry."  And  again  :  'Every 
life,' says  he,  'will  at  its  close  become  a  tragedy  as  sad, 
and  deep,  and  dark  as  can  be  woven  of  the  warp  and  woof 
of  mystery  and  death,'  and  'Whether  in  mid-sea  or  among 
the  breakers  of  the  farther  shore,  a  wreck  must  mark  the 
end  of  each  and  all.' 

"  Alas  !  if  his  theories  are  true,  all  this  follows,  and 
'  no  shipwrecked  brother  can  take  heart  again.'  If  we 
have  no  Father,  if  we  are  without  souls  and  death  ends  all, 
then,  indeed,  he  truly  says  life,  'every  life  is  a  tragedy  and 
a  wreck,'  must  indeed  mark  the  end  of  us  all.  But  if  we 
have  a  good  and  kind  Father,  who  has  created  us  to  be 
happy,  placed  us  in  this  beautiful  world  to  prepare  us  for 
another  still  more  beautiful,  where  we  may  live  in  joy,  and 
love,  and  purity  forever,  then  life  need  not  be  a  '  tragedy,' 
nor  need  any  be  'shipwrecked  among  the  breakers  of  the 
farther  shore.'     There  is  a  haven  beyond  those  '  breakers.' 

"  I  am  here  then  with  the  hope  that  I  may  be  believed 
when  I  ask  '  some  shipwrecked  brother  to  take  heart 
again',  and  to  have  faith  that  the  statement  'Life  is  not 
an  empty  dream',  and  that 


20  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

•  I  Hist  thou  art,   to   dust  returnest. 
Was  not  spoken  of  the  soul.' 

"  But  why  is  belief  so  hard,  why  in  these  days  do  so 
many  ingenuous  minds  find  faith  in  God  and  immortality 
so  difficult  ?  First,  perhaps,  it  is  because  these  great  truths 
have  been  mixed  up  with  absurd  human  creeds,  and  cruel, 
repulsive  dogmas ;  and,  second,  among  the  candid  and 
honest  seekers  after  truth,  and  among  those  who  do  not 
adopt  skepticism  for  the  freedom  of  self-indulgence,  the 
chief  difficulty  arises  from  the  mystery  involved,  the  diffi- 
culty in  comprehending. 

"Creation,  eternity,  omnipotence  are  to  us  incompre- 
hensible. These  ideas  are  beyond  our  grasp,  and  in  our 
pride  of  intellect  in  these  days,  when  we  are  conquering  so 
many  difficulties  and  solving  so  many  questions,  we  reject 
what  we  can  not  comprehend,  and  refuse  to  believe  what 
we  can  not  fully  understand. 

"IN     1  HE   ALPS. 
"In  Sept.,  1873,  I  passed   a  Sunday  at  Chamounix. 

This,  as  you  know,  is  a  hamlet  occupied  chiefly  by  guides 
and  mountaineers,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Blanc.  There  is, 
among  the  evergreens,  a  little  English  chapel  under  the 
shadow  of  this  '  monarch  of  mountains.'  When,  on  a 
bright,  sunny  morning,  the  sweet-toned  bell  rang  out  its 
call  for  morning  prayer,  awakening  soft  and  gentle  echoes 


TRIBUTE    OF    BISHOP    HARRIS.  21 

among  the  rocks  and  mountains,  many  strangers,  travelers 
from  far-away  lands,  gathered  to  worship  the  great  Being 
■whose  sublime  creations  were  all  around  us.  As  we  came 
together  in  this  little  chapel,  from  France,  from  Germany, 
from  Scotland,  and  merry  England,  from  the  prairies  of 
Illinois,  from  the  hills  of  New  England,  and  listened  to 
the  Bible  and  the  Prayer-Book,  the  familiar  words  took 
us  back,  each  to  his  own  home  and  fatherland.  Our 
vernacular  never  seems  so  sweet  as  when  heard  in  a 
foreign  land,  and  the  familiar  hymns  of  childhood,  asso- 
ciated with  a  mother's  voice,  when  heard  again  in  a 
foreign  land,  are  more  touching  than  the  grandest 
cathedral  anthem.  It  was  a  real  pleasure  to  hear  the 
voice  of  a  Chicago  scholar  and  priest,  asking  for  each 
and  all  of  us,  in  that  far  far-off  valley,  the  blessing  of 
Almighty  God. 

"In  the  evening,  we  all  gathered  around  the  bright 
■\vood-fire  in  the  parlor  of  the  inn,  to  listen  to  that  wonder- 
ful poem  of  Coleridge,  '  The  Hymn  to  Mount  Blanc' 
Let  me  recall  a  few  lines  as  recited  then  and  there: 

"'Oh,  dread  and  silent  mount,  I  gazed  upon  thee 
Till  *  * 

entranced  in  prayer 
I  worshiped  the  Invisible  alone.' 

"Addressing  the  mountain,  the  poet  says: 


22  ISAAC   N.    ARNOLD. 

"  '  Wake,  O  wake,  and  utter  praise ! 
Who  sunk  thy  pillars  deep  in  earth? 
Who  filled  thy  countenance  with  rosy  light? 
Who  made  thee  parent  of  perpetual  streams? 

•  Who  bade  the  sun 

Clothe  you  with  rainbows,  who,  with  living  flowers 
Of  loveliest  blue,  spread  garlands  nt  your  feet  ? 
God!    let  the  torrent  like  a  shout  of  nations 
Answer,  and  let  the  ice-plains  echo,  God! 

Ye  living  flowers  that  skirt  the  eternal  frost, 
Ye  wild  goats  sporting  round  the  eagle's  nest, 
Ye  lightnings,  the  dread  arrows  of  the  clouds, 
Ye  signs  and  wonders  of  the  elements, 
Utter  forth,  God,  and  fill  the  hills  with  praise! 

*  *  *  # 

Thou,  too,  stupendous  mountain  thou ! 

*  #  #  # 

•  Rise,  O  ever  rise, 

Thou  kingly  spirit  throned  among  the  clouds, 
Thou  dread  Embassador  from  earth  to  heaven, 
Great  Hierarch,  tell  thou  the  silent  sky 
And  tell  the  stars,  and  tell  yon  rising  sun, 
Earth  with  her  thousand  voices  praises  God.5 

"  To   him    to   whom    all    this    is    an    utter   blank,   the 


TRIBUTE   OF    BISHOP    HARRIS.  23 

materialist,  the  man  who  can  not  find  God  in  nature,  in 
what  poverty  of  spirit  must  he  live  ? 

••  •  How  weary,  stale,  flat,  and  unprofitable 

Must  seem  to  him  all  the  uses  of  this  world." 

"  But  a  system  which  inspires  such  sentiments  as  were 
expressed  by  Coleridge,  which  has  produced  such  benefi- 
cent results  as  I  have  attempted  to  describe,  which  brings 
into  existence  and  nurtures  such  men  as  Bossuet  and 
Fenelon,  as  Howard  and  Wesley,  as  Channing,  Washing- 
ton, and  Lincoln,  must  have  truth  for  its  basis.  From 
systems  of  imposture  and  lies,  such  fruit  does  not  grow. 
And  what  do  they  offer  you  in  place  of  this  sublime 
religion  ?  Darkness  and  doubt — agnosticism.  Poor  chil- 
dren groping  here  in  thick  blackness;  and  in  the  future, 
death  and  annihilation!  At  utter  shipwreck  among  the 
breakers  of  the  farther  shore. 

"  But  all  this,  like  the  meteor  that  rises  above  the 
marsh,  and  the  glare  of  'false  science,  that  leads  to  bewil- 
der and  dazzles  to  blind,'  shall  pass  away.  Christianity 
shall  live  until  its  great  work  shall  have  been  accom- 
plished, and  man  shall  be  restored  to  purity  and  happi- 
ness and  to  God. 

"Such,  gentlemen,  is  my  hope — SUCH   is  MY  FAITH." 

In  this  faith  our  brother  lived.      In  this  hope  he  came 


24  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

to  die.     Sustained  and  soothed   by  this  unfaltering  trust, 
he  met  his  end 

"  Like  one  who  wraps   the  drapery  of  His  couch 
About  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams." 

Bishop  McLaren  gave  the  Episcopal  benediction,  and 
the  hymn,  "Lead,  Kindly  Light,"  was  sung  by  the  choir. 
The  pall -bearers  then  approached  the  foot  of  the  com- 
munion rails,  where  the  coffin  was  resting  beneath  a  mass 
of  flowers,  and  bore  the  remains  down  the  central  aisle  of 
the  church  to  the  hearse. 

Special  seats  were  set  apart  for  representatives  of  the 
bar,  members  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  the  ser- 
vants of  the  family,  and  the  employes  of  Lincoln  Park. 
The  avenues  and  streets  surrounding  the  church  were 
densely  thronged  with  carriages,  and  at  the  conclusion  of 
the  funeral  services  followed  the  remains  to  their  last  rest- 
ing-place in  Graceland  Cemetery. 

Among  those  present  in  the  church  were:  John  V. 
Farwell,  John  Went  worth,  Judge  Henry  W.  Blodgett,  Elias 
T.  Watkins,  John  N.  Jewett,  Silas  B.  and  Geo.  W.  Cobb, 
Gen.  Wm.  E.  Strong,  Stephen  F.  Gale,  John  M.  VanOsdel, 
Dr.  Tolman  Wheeler,  John  Gray,  Geo.  L.  Dunlap,  Geo.  M. 
High,  Arthur  G.  Burley,  Augustus  H.  Burley,  John  Tyrrell, 
John  H.  Dunham,  Joseph  Stockton,  John  L.  Wilson,  Volney 


LAST    RITES.  25 

C.  Turner,  Marcus  C.  Stearns,  Laurin  P.  Hilliard,  Joseph 
Peacock,  A.  C.  Hesing,  Nathan  Mears,  Gen.  Joseph  Leake, 
J.  L.  Hathaway,  James  H.  McVicker,  L.  C.  Paine  Freer, 
Win.  H.  Stickney,  Robert  Fergus,  Joseph  K.  C.  and  Thos. 
L.  Forrest,  David  Swing,  Perry  H.  Smith,  Samuel  H.  and 
Win.  D.  Kerfoot,  W.  D.  and  James  L.  Houghteling,  Henry 
G.  Miller,  Roswell  B.  and  Edvv.  G.  Mason,  Van  H.  Higgins, 
Daniel  Goodwin,  Jr.,  Win.  Eliot  Furness,  Julius  White,  Wm. 
Bross,  Walter  C.  Larned,  John  Forsythe,  John  H.  Kedzie, 
Henry  W.  Bishop,  William  F.  Poole,  Henry  A.  Huntington, 
Levi  Z.  Leiter,  Andrew  J.  Brown,  Wm.  K.  Nixon,  Henry  I. 
Sheldon,  Abijah  Keith,  Wm.  H.  Bradley,  Clarence  H.  Dyer, 
Luther  Stone,  Chas.  R.  Larrabee,  Benj.  H.  Campbell,  John 
DeKoven,  Wm.  G.  McCormick,  Dr.  Chas.  L.  Rutter,  Chas. 
N.  Fullerton,  Benj.  A.  Greer,  Chas.  Dennehy,  Philip  Conley, 
J.  McGregor  Adams,  Geo.  E.  Adams,  John  Crerar,  William 
Wayman,  S.  Lockwood  Brown,  Henry  Clay  Kinney,  C.  C. 
Bonney,  Dr.  Sidney  Sawyer,  Henry  Bausher,  Jr.,  Henry  E. 
Hamilton,  Grant  Goodrich,  James  Morgan,  Wm.  J.  Onahan, 
DeWitt  C.  Cregier,  Samuel  C.  Griggs,  Samuel  S.  Greeley, 
Samuel  Johnson,  James  J.  Richards,  Henry  J.  Willing,  Chas. 
C.  P.  Holden,  Simeon  W.  King,  John  T.  Noyes,  O.  B.  Green, 
Norman  Williams,  H.  W.  Jackson,  John  Bates,  C.  A.  Mosher, 
William  Aldrich,  Robert  Hervey,  Henry  L.  Hatch,  Geo.  W. 
Newcomb,  Arthur  W.  Windette,  Jonathan  Slade,  Charles 
Harpel,   Edward   F.  Cragin,  Dr.  John  Nutt,  E.  A.  Otis,  A. 


26  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

B.  Tobey,  Andrew  J.  Galloway,  Lawrence  Proudfoot,  Amos 
G.  Throop,  Martin  Kimball,  Thomas  P.  Robb,  William  A. 
Butters,  Jacob  Miller,  Redmond  Prindiville,  Frederick  A- 
Hunt,  Wm.  R.  Manierre,  Ralph  N.  Isham,  Julian  S.  Rum- 
sey,  Albert  D.  Hager,  and  Frank  M.  Blair. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


TRIBUTE    OF    DR.   H.  N.   POWERS. 

To  the  Editors  of  the  "  Standard  " : 

There  was  buried  today  at  Chicago  one  of  the  noblest 
men  of  that  city — one  whose  character  I  revered  and  of 
whose  friendship  I  was  proud — that  man  was  Isaac  N. 
Arnold.  Mr.  Arnold,  who  was  born  in  the  State  of  New 
York,  went  to  Chicago,  then  a  smaller  place  than  Bridge- 
port, when  a  very  young  man,  and  ever  since  has  been 
identified  with  what  is  the  best  in  the  reputation  of  the 
city  and  of  Illinois.  He  helped  lay  there  the  foundations 
of  whatever  makes  a  commonwealth  honored  and  endur- 
ing. During  the  terrible  years  of  the  civil  war,  he  faith- 
fully served  his  adopted  State  in  the  Congress  of  the 
Nation,  and  was  the  first  to  propose  there  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  slaves.  In  the  circle  of  gifted  men  like  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and  Elihu  B.  Wash- 
burne,  who  made  the  bar  of  Illinois  famous,  he  was  a 
notable  personage.  For  many  years  until  his  death,  he 
was  president  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  and  a 
prominent  member  of  the  Chicago  Literary  Club.  He 
was  a  cultivated  scholar,  a  sound  and  skilful  lawyer,  an 


28  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

able  and  painstaking  biographer  and  historian,  a  pure 
patriot,  and  a  Christian  of  untarnished  name.  His  rela- 
tions with  Mr.  Lincoln  were  more  intimate  and  confiden- 
tial than  those  of  any  other  public  man  in  the  Nation. 
Their  friendship,  cemented  by  years  of  affectionate  inter- 
course, was  very  close,  tender,  and  beautiful.  After  Mr. 
Lincoln's  death,  Mr.  Arnold  made  extensive  and  critical 
preparations  to  write  his  biography,  and  his  material  for 
this  purpose  in  1871  amounted  to  eight  large  manuscript 
volumes.  All  this  valuable  matter,  including  a  great  many 
letters  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  other  MSS.  in  his  own  writing, 
was  burned  up  in  the  memorable  Chicago  fire.  In  de- 
scribing to  me  the  destruction  of  his  pleasant  house  and 
precious  contents — a  calamity  that  he  supposed  he  would 
escape  till  the  moment  that  it  came — Mr.  Arnold  did  not 
seem  to  grieve  over  any  loss  but  that  of  the  volumes  of 
Lincoln  MSS.     This  was  really  a  national  loss. 

In  the  removal  of  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  Chicago  loses  a 
citizen  who  represented  the  best  side  of  her  character  and 
life.  He  was  faithful  to  the  last  to  the  high  ideals  of  his 
youth.  He  was  never  tainted  by  the  mercenary  spirit 
that  gives  that  city  such  notoriety,  and  nothing  unworthy 
ever  clouded  his  fair  name,  which  was  a  synonym  for 
honor  and  patriotism.  His  presence  was  noble;  his  man- 
ner and  bearing,  knightly.  His  was  a  nature  in  which 
gentleness   and    force,   refinement   and    vigor,   scholarship 


TRIBUTE   OF   DR.    II.    N.    POWERS.  29 

and  piety  beautifully  blended  in  a  character  of  symmetri- 
cal and  admirable  manhood.  It  seems  as  though  it  was 
but  yesterday  that  one  of  his  letters  of  warm  greeting  and 
encouragement  came  to  me,  and  before  me  now,  as  I  write, 
is  an  invitation  to  his  funeral.  As  I  can  not  be  with  those 
who  sadly  follow  his  remains  today  to  their  last  resting- 
place,  it  is  some  little  solace  to  my  heart  to  cast  this  brief 

and  hasty  tribute  upon  his  grave. 

H.  X.  Powers, 

Rector  Christ  Church,  Bridgeport,  Conn. 
April  28,  1884. 


TRIBUTE   OF    DR.  J.   A.   BOLLES. 
[Standard  of  the  Cross,  Cleveland,  O.] 

To  the  Editor: 

Your  paper  of  last  week  contained  a  notice  of  the 
death  of  Hon.  Isaac  X.  Arnold  of  Chicago,  and  a  fitting 
tribute  to  his  memory.  In  that  notice,  Mr.  Arnold  is 
spoken  of  as  "a  leading  citizen  of  Chicago,  foremost  in 
good  works,  and  influential  in  promoting  the  good  name 
and  interests  of  the  city  and  state;  a  gentleman  of  digni- 
fied and  noble  bearing,  learned  in  the  law  and  in  letters, 
able  as  a  writer,  eloquent  as  a  speaker,  and  of  unsullied 
reputation  in  his  public  and  private  life."  Xot  much  more 
could  well  be  said  of  any  one,  more  especially  of  a  man 
always  in  public  life,  not  only  as  a  lawyer  but  a  politician. 


30  ISAAC   N.    ARNOLD. 

a  legislator,  and  a  member  of  Congress;  and  yet  the  crown- 
ing excellency  of  his  character  is  omitted,  for 

"Christian  is  the  highest  style  of  man,'' 

and  Mr.  Arnold  was  a  Christian,  a  communicant  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  for  many  years  a  vestry- 
man of  St.  James'  Church,  Chicago. 

But  my  object  is  not  adulation.  What  I  wish  is  to 
hold  him  up  as  an  example  to  all  young  men  of  what 
may  be  accomplished  by  an  earnest,  honest,  and  faithful 
Christian  life.  My  first  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Arnold 
began  in  1841,  when  I  married  him  to  a  lady  in  whom 
I  was  much  interested,  who  had  been  a  member  of  my 
family  school  for  young  ladies;  nor  can  I  ever  forget  my 
anxieties  on  that  occasion.  From  that  time  to  the  pres- 
ent I  have  been  more  or  less  intimate  with  the  family; 
and  I  hesitate  not  to  say  that  Mr.  Arnold  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  illustrations  of  a  self-made  man  I  have 
ever  known.  What  I  mean  is  this,  that  though  his  father 
was  an  eminent  physician,  yet  at  the  age  of  fifteen  years 
he  began  life  for  himself,  without  any  other  advantages 
than  those  of  a  common  district-school  education,  in  West- 
ern New  York.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar,  became  the  partner  of  his  teacher, 
Judge  Morehouse  of  Cooperstown;  and  soon  after  was  so 
successful  in  advocating  the  cause  of  a  negro,  charged  with 


TRIBUTE   OF   DR.   J.    A.    BOLLES.  3 1 

a  capital  offence,  as  to  gain  for  himself  almost  a  national 
reputation.  Then  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  years  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  arriving  there  in  1836,  publishing  his 
card  as  a  lawyer;  and  notwithstanding  all  the  trials  and 
temptations  of  that  strange  city  for  any  young  man,  yet 
he  weathered  the  storm,  and  has  now  gone  to  his  rest,  at 
the  age  of  seventy  years,  beloved  and  honored  as  a 
friend,  a  citizen,  a  lawyer,  a  churchman,  a  statesman,  and 
an  author  whose  works  will  be  forever  identified  with  the 
history  of  the  country.  All  this  not  from  any  peculiar 
genius  or  special  brilliancy  of  intellect  or  advantages  of 
education,  but  simply  and  solely  because  of  his  untiring 
industry,  his  good  common-sense,  his  sincerity  and  honesty 
of  character,  and  his  fidelity  in  acting  upon  that  response 
of  the  catechism  as  to  the  two  things  which  we  chiefly 
learn  from  the  Ten  Commandments,  "  my  duty  towards 
God  and  my  duty  towards  my  neighbor." 

My  mind  goes  back  to  the  time  of  my  first  acquaint- 
ance with  Mr.  Arnold,  now  more  than  forty  years  ago, 
and  when  I  contrast  the  results  with  the  prospect,  there 
arises  before  me  at  once  the  evidences  of  that  supernatu- 
ral grace  and  strength  which  were  promised  to  him  in  his 
holy  baptism,  and  which  enabled  him  so  to  "pass  the 
waves  of  this  troublesome  world"  as  finally  to  "die  in  the 
communion  of  the  catholic  church,  in  the  confidence  of  a 
certain  faith,  in  the  comfort  of  a  reasonable,  religious,  and 


32  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

holy  hope,  in  favor  with  God  and  in  perfect  charity  with 
the  world."  O  how  many  thousands  have  fallen  beside 
him  in  public  life,  making  "shipwreck  of  faith  and  a  good 
conscience,"  and  yet,  God  be  praised,  our  dear  friend  was 
enabled  to  "withstand  the  temptations  of  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  the  devil,"  and  to  continue  "steadfast,  immova- 
ble, always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord." 

But  the  best  and  crowning  act  of  his  life,  was  un- 
doubtedly the  document  read  by  him  before  the  Philo- 
sophical Society  of  Chicago,  Dec.  16,  1882,  only  a  little 
more  than  a  year  before  his  death,  and  which  he  entitled 
"The  Layman's  Faith."  Both  as  a  lawyer  and  a  politi- 
cian, Mr.  Arnold  had  been  associated  with  a  certain  dis- 
tinguished atheist  whose  name  I  will  not  mention,  but 
who  as  a  lecturer  had  been  received  in  Chicago  with 
marked  success.  "The  Layman's  Faith"  is  a  complete 
and  unanswerable  response  to  all  the  ribald,  invective,  and 
blasphemous  enormities  of  that  atheistic  lecturer  to  whom 
he  alludes  at  the  beginning  of  this  noble  and  splendid 
defence  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  questions  raised 
are  these: — "If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again?  Is  there 
a  God,  our  great  Father?  Has  He  revealed  Himself  to 
man  ? "  "  For  me,"  he  says,  "  these  questions  must  soon 
be  solved  by  death.  Not  many  years,  at  most,  can  elapse 
before  I  shall  'sleep  with  my  fathers,'  'lie  in  cold  obstruc- 
tion's apathy,'  or,  as  I  hope  and  believe,  live  again  in  a 
brighter  life." 


TRIBUTE   OF    DR.   J.    A.    BOLLES.  33 

I  wish  I  could  quote  largely  from  this  admirable  essay 
on  "paper"  as  he  modestly  calls  it;  for  there  is  no  argu- 
ment against  Christianity  by  any  of  our  modern  unbe- 
lievers which  is  not  fairly  and  squarely  met  and  exposed ; 
and  I  think  it  should  be  printed  as  a  tract  and  put  into 
the  hands  of  every  young  lawyer  in  the  country.  But  I 
can  only  call  attention  to  it  as  embracing  a  full  discussion 
of  the  following  subjects,  viz.:  The  Mysteries  of  the 
Faith;  the  Existence  of  God;  Christianity  and  its  Tri- 
umphs; The  Life  and  Character  of  our  Blessed  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ;  The  Results  of  His  Life  and  Death, 
both  as  a  Suffering  and  a  Conquering  Saviour;  The  Tes- 
timony of  Great  Men;  The  Desires  and  Longings  of  the 
Human  Soul;  all  these  subjects  are  thoroughly  examined 
and  interwoven  with  some  of  the  most  touching  appeals 
to  the  human  heart  which  have  ever  been  conceived  or 
uttered. 

The  document  concludes  with  an  interesting  account 
of  a  Sunday  in  the  Alps  at  Chamounix,  in  1873,  attending 
the  English  Chapel,  with  travelers  from  all  quarters  of  the 
world,  worshiping  the  same  Almighty  God,  according  to 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  "all  one  in  Christ  Jesus," 
and  then  all  assembling  in  the  evening,  in  one  of  the  par- 
lors of  the  inn,  to  listen  to  that  wonderful  poem  of  Cole- 
ridge, "The  Hymn  to  Mount  Blanc." 


34  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

"  Oh,  dread  and  silent  mount,  I  gazed  upon  thee 
Till       *         *         *       entranced  in  prayer 
I  worshiped  the  Invisible  alone." 

"And  what  do  they  offer  you  in  place  of  this  sublime 
religion  ?  Darkness  and  doubt — agnosticism.  Poor  chil- 
dren, groping  here  in  thick  blackness;  and  in  the  future, 
death  and  annihilation!  *  *  *  But  all  this,  like  the 
meteor  that  rises  above  the  marsh,  and  the  glare  of  'false 
science  that  leads  to  bewilder  and  dazzles  to  blind,'  shall 
pass  away.  Christianity  shall  live  until  its  great  work 
shall  have  been  accomplished,  and  man  shall  be  restored 
to  purity  and  happiness  and  to  God.  Such,  gentlemen,  is 
my  hope — such  is  my. faith!" 

Blessed  words,  now  sealed  and  attested  by  death ! 
What  greater  comfort  can  there  be  to  surviving  relatives 
and  friends! 

■■When   Faith  grows  dim  and   Hope  seems  gone, 
The  dead  in  Christ  shall  cheer  us  on." 

Affectionately  contributed  by 

James  A.  Bolles. 
Cleveland,  May  15,  1884. 


TRIBUTE    OF    GEO.   W.    LAV.  35 

From  among  the  many  letters  received  by  Mrs. 
Arnold  after  her  husband's  death,  the  following  of  Mr. 
Lay's  is  selected  because  in  it  is  mentioned  a  trait  of  Mr. 
Arnold's  character — his  kindly  interest  in  the  younger 
members  of  his  profession  —  not  alluded  to  in  the  other 
papers: 

TRIBUTE   OF   GEO.   W.   LAV. 

BATAVIA,  N.Y.,  April  2H,  1884. 
Dear  Mrs.  Arnold: 

Imagine  my  surprise  when  I  saw  the  telegraph  an- 
nouncement of  Mr.  Arnold's  death,  not  knowing  that  he 
was  seriously  ill.  Immediately  I  was  carried  back  to  the 
first  time  I  came  to  Chicago,  in  June,  1847,  and  went  into 
the  law-office  of  Arnold  &  Ogden.  Ey  the  kindness  of 
Mr.  Arnold,  I  was  soon  taken  as  his  partner  in  business. 
From  that  time  until  the  date  of  our  separation,  a  period 
of  over  sixteen  years,  he  always  treated  me  with  the 
utmost  kindness  and  consideration.  Never,  during  our 
long  association,  did  we  have  any  disagreement  and  never, 
although  for  over  sixteen  years  together,  did  we  have  any 
settlement  of  our  partnership,  each  apparently  satisfied, 
and  fully  trusting  each  other. 

At  our  last  meeting,  when  I  visited  him  at  his  home, 
we  talked  over  old  cases  in  which  we  were  interested,  and 
the  many  amusing  incidents  in  our  long  partnership.  He 
then  told  me  he  was  carefully  rewriting  the  life  of  Lincoln, 


36  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

and  seemed  to  me  then  to  be  as  young-  in  his  feelings  as 
ever,  as  hopeful,  seemed  to  enjoy  his  life,  his  work,  and 
talked  of  the  future  as  happily  as  of  the  past.  You,  know- 
ing well  the  intimate  relations  we  had,  can  easily  and 
readily  appreciate  my  feelings,  my  recollections,  as  I 
thought  of  the  past,  thought  of  the  struggles  and  per- 
plexities of  our  business.  To  Mr.  Arnold  I  attribute  in 
a  great  measure  my  success  in  life.  He  was  to  me  a  firm, 
constant  friend,  an  adviser,  a  counselor,  always  to  be 
trusted. 

Truly  a  good  man  has  been  called  away.  Permit  me 
to  sympathize  with  you  in  your  loss,  to  mourn  for  my 
steadfast  friend,  who  took  me  by  the  hand,  a  stranger 
amon<j  strangers,  unknown,  unnoticed,  ignorant  of  busi- 
ness,  of  the  ways  of  the  world,  and  led  me  on  to  pros- 
perity, to  happiness,  with  always  a  kindly,  fatherly  interest. 
Others  may  speak  of  his  undoubted  success  in  law,  in 
politics,  in  literary  pursuits,  and  of  his  high  standing 
socially;  but  I  can  only  write  of  that  kindness  of  heart 
that  prompted  him  to  take  me  as  I  was  and  to  make  me 
what  I  am.     That  will  remain  in  my  memory  forever. 

I  had  hoped  that  years  of  tranquil  rest  were  left  him, 
and  that  after  the  publication  of  the  life  of  Lincoln  he 
would  rest  from  his  literary  labors.  But  such  rest  was  not 
for  him  in  this  life.     Again  I  mourn  with  you. 

Mrs.  Lay  joins  me  in  kind  remembrance  to  yourself 
and  family.  Truly  yours,         Geo.  W.  Lav. 


PROCEEDINGS 

OF    THK 

CHICAGO    HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 


The  Hon.  Isaac  X.  Arnold,  president  of  the  Chicago" 
Historical  Society,  died  at  his  residence  in  Chicago,  on  the 
24th  day  of  April,  1884.  At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Society 
after  his  death,  May  20,  1884,  the  following  resolution,  offered 
by  Judge  Skinner,  was  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  the  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne  be  requested 
to  prepare  and  deliver  before  this  Society,  at  his  convenience, 
a  Memorial  Address,  commemorative  of  the  life  and  charac- 
ter of  the  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold. 

Before  the  adjournment,  Mr.  Washburne,  the  acting- 
president  of  the  Society,  said: 

"  I  am  certain  that  all  the  members  of  the  Chicago 
Historical  Society,  and  all  others  present,  will  have  heard 
with  emotion  the  resolution  in  respect  to  our  late  President, 
first  presented  by  Judge  Mark  Skinner. 

"  The  Society  has  met  with  a  great  and  almost  irre- 
parable loss  in  the  death  of  Mr.  Arnold.  Long  identified 
with  it,  giving  to  it  his  attention  and  his  services,  he  has 
done  much  to  elevate  its  character  and  increase  its  useful- 
ness. We  can  never  forget  with  what  courtesy  and  dignity 
he  presided  at  our  meetings.  Dying,  as  it  were,  in  the 
harness,  he  has  left  us  the  recollection  of  an  honest  man, 
4 


38  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

a  cultivated  gentleman,  a  good  citizen,  and  an  honored 
public  servant.  At  some  time  in  the  future,  the  Society- 
will  pay  appropriate  honors  to  his  memory." 

A  regular  monthly  meeting  of  the  Society  was  held  at 
the  Society  Rooms,  on  Dearborn  Avenue,  Tuesday  evening, 
October  21,  1884.  After  the  disposal  of  the  preliminary- 
business,  Mr.  Washburne  delivered  the  following  Address. 


ADDRESS   OF   HON.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE 


Gentlemen   of  the   Chicago   Historical   Society,   and 
Ladies   and  < !  entlemen  : 

THE  Chicago  Historical  Society  has  been  called 
upon  to  mourn  the  death  of  our  esteemed  and 
distinguished  associate,  Hon.  Isaac  Newton  Arnold. 
its  late  president. 

On  the  evening  of  20th  of  May,  1884,  the  Society 
passed  the  following  resolution,  introduced  by  our  hon- 
ored friend  and  fellow -member,  Judge  Skinner,  the 
cotemporary  and  almost  life-long  friend  of  Mr.  Arnold: 

Resolved,  That  in  the  removal  by  death  of  Hon.  Isaac 
X.  Arnold,  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  mourns  the  loss 
of  one  of  its  original  founders,  of  one  of  its  most  active, 
efficient,  and  reliable  members,  and  its  honored  and  greatly- 
respected  president.  During  all  the  active  years  of  a  long 
and  well-spent  life,  Mr.  Arnold  had  been  a  citizen  of  Chi- 
cago, contributing  by  his  indefatigable  industry,  his  unim- 
peachable integrity,  his  patriotism,  his  public  spirit,  his  rare 
abilities,  his  great  acquirements,  his  spotless  moral  character, 
his  high  social  qualifications,  and  his  instincts  as  a  thorough 
gentleman  to  give  lustre  to  the  city  of  his  residence  and  to 
the  generation  to  which  he  belonged  ;  a  successful  lawyer 
that  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  his  profession;  a  cautious,  far- 


40  ISAAC    N.   ARNOLD. 

seeing,  and  wise  legislator,  distinguishing  himself  in  the  halls 
of  legislation,  National  as  well  as  State;  a  successful  public 
speaker  and  a  writer  of  great  power  and  wide-spread  popu- 
larity, he  has  left  to  the  generations  that  succeed  him  the 
legacy  of  a  noble  example  and  a  good  name. 

At  the  same  meeting,  another  resolution  was 
passed  requesting  me  to  deliver  before  the  Society  a 
"  Memorial  Address  commemorative  of  the  Life  and 
Character  of  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold."  It  would  have 
been  well  if  that  task  could  have  been  confided  to 
some  older  resident  of  Chicago,  and  one  better  able  to 
do  justice  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Arnold.  I  overcome 
my  hesitation,  however,  when  I  consider  the  opportu- 
nity it  gives  me  of  appreciating  the  character  of  a 
man  to  whom  1  was  allied  by  so  many  ties  of  friend- 
ship and  whom  I  held  in  the  highest  esteem  for  his 
private  and  public  virtues,  for  his  ability,  his  states- 
manship, and  his  patriotism. 

At  the  threshhold  of  my  remarks,  I  may  perhaps 
be  pardoned  for  recalling  an  incident  which  took  place 
a  few  months  prior  to  Mr.  Arnold's  death.  About 
Christmas  time,  1883,  he  sent  me  an  elegantly-bound 
copy  of  the  "  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Historical 
Society,"  which  contained  his  admirable  paper  on  Mr. 
Lincoln,  and  which,  on  the  invitation  of  the  Society, 
he  went  to  London  to  read. 

In  a  letter  written  on  the  20th  of  December  last, 
I  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  the  address,  and   said : 

"I  have  re-read  your  paper  with  renewed  interest, 
one  of  the  most  complete  and  most  polished   produc- 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.   WASHBURNE.  41 

tions  that  I  now  recall  to  mind.  The  simple  and  elo- 
quent story  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  awakens  in  me  some 
of  the  most  pleasant  as  well  as  some  of  the  saddest 
memories  of  that  remarkable  man. 

You  know  what  answer  Queen  Katherine  made 
to  Griffith  after  his  eulogy  on  Cardinal  Wolsey.  I 
would  say  with  her,  substituting  Arnold   for  Griffith: 

"After  ray  death,  I  wish  no  other  herald, 
No  speaker  of  my  living  actions, 
To  keep  mine  honor  from  corruption, 
But  such  an  honest  chronicler  as  Griffith." 

In  answering  my  note  on  the  20th  of  December, 
Mr.  Arnold  says: 

"  How  strange,  as  I  write,  Lincoln's  Shakespeare,  given 
me  by  Mrs.  Lincoln  and  Robert,  with  his  autograph,  lies 
before  me,  the  book  which  so  familiarized  him  with  the 
great  poet.  You,  his  friend  and  co-laborer,  quote  from  it. 
I  can  only  promise  in  reference  to  him  that  I  shall  try  to 
be  like  Griffith,  'an  honest  chronicler'.  But  I  have  this 
great  advantage:  Wolsey's  character  was  made  up  of  good 
and   evil,  and  although  he  was 

'A  scholar,  and  a  ripe  and  good  one,' 

yet  he  had  his  faults;  but  of  Lincoln, 

•All    the   ends    he   aimed    at   were    his   Country's,   ('rod's,   and 
Truth's.' 

And  so  the  'honest  chronicler'  has  but  the  simple  truth 
to  tell. 


42  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

You  arc  younger  than  I,  and  in  the  course  of  nature 
will  survive  me.  Whoever  goes  first,  the  survivor  will  speak 
some  kind  words." 

Mr.  Arnold  lias  preceded  me  to  that  undis- 
covered country  from  whence  no  traveler  returns. 
On  the  24th  day  of  April,  1884,  in  peace  with  himself 
and  all  the  world,  at  his  residence  in  this  city,  sur- 
rounded by  his  sorrowing-  family,  he  died,  fearing 
God.  Surviving  him,  and  with  a  heart  tilled  with  sad- 
ness,  it  now  comes  to  me  in  this  presence  "  to  speak 
some  kind  words"  of  my  friend  and  our  late  president. 

Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Hartwick,  Otsego  Co.,  N.Y.  His  father  was  a  coun- 
try  physician,  who  while  conscientiously  attending  to 
the  demands  of  his  profession  added  something  to  his 
limited  income  by  cultivating  a  small  farm  in  a  town 
where  all  the  people  were  devoted  to  agriculture.  In 
that  beautiful  count}-  of  Otsego,  with  its  picturesque 
scenerv,  its  clear  and  limpid  lakes,  and  its  extensive 
forests,  amid  a  population  made  up  of  the  best  type  of 
the  American  character,  Mr.  Arnold  first  saw  the  light 
of  day.  It  was  in  that  comparative  solitude  that  he 
drew  his  earliest  inspirations  and  laid  the  foundations, 
deep  and  broad,  of  that  future  life,  distinguished  for 
so  much  honor  and  illustrated  by  so  many  virtues. 
Thrown  upon  his  own  resources  at  an  early  age,  he 
became  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune,  and  has  fur- 
nished an  example  to  the  young  men  of  the  present 
day,  who  can  see  in  his  career  that  the  pathway  to 
greatness  and   usefulness   is  opened    to  all    who  enter 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    K.    B.  WASHBURNE.  43 

upon   it    in   a   spirit   of   loyal    devotion    to    the    great 
objects  of  life. 

Having  prepared  himself  for  the  study  of  law,  he 
first  commenced  his  studies  under  Richard  Cooper, 
Esq.,  of  Cooperstown,  N.V.,  and  afterward  continued 
them  in  the  office  of  Judge  E.  B.  Morehouse  of  the 
same  place  until  he  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1835, 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years. 

Taking  up  his  residence  in  Chicago  in  1836,  his 
•career  from  that  time  was  one  of  honorable  success; 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death  no  citizen  of  Chicago 
was  more  widely  known  and  more  highly  respected 
and  esteemed  than  was  Mr.  Arnold.  The  story  of 
his  professional  life  must  be  told  by  some  one  of  his 
associates  at  the  Bar  who  had  personal  knowledge  of 
his  ability  as  a  lawyer  and  of  the  distinction  he 
acquired  in  the  practice  of  his  chosen  profession. 

Interested  always  in  questions  of  great  public 
interest,  he  often  stepped  outside  the  limits  of  his  pro- 
fession to  make  himself  heard  and  his  influence  felt. 
When  the  question  of  the  repudiation  of  the  State 
debt  arose,  as  was  natural  for  a  man  of  his  stamp, 
Mr.  Arnold  revolted  against  the  proposition,  and  gave 
the  influence  of  his  high  character  and  great  ability  to 
sustain  the  public  faith.  He  made  himself  known  to 
the  people  by  voice  and  pen  in  his  efforts  to  sustain 
the  honor  of  the  State  and  to  have  the  people  stamp 
out  the  dishonorable  but  insidious  proposition  to  repu- 
diate the  public  debt. 

In  the  session  of  the   Legislature  of   1842-3,  Mr. 


44  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

Arnold  rendered  a  great  and  inestimable  service  to 
the  State  in  carrying  through  that  Canal  Bill  which 
laid  the  foundation  of  our  State  credit  and  which  con- 
tributed so  much  to  make  Illinois  what  it  is  today,  the 
pride  of  all  its  loyal  sons  and  the  admiration  of  our 
country  and  the  world.  On  all  questions  of  good 
faith  and  public  morality,  Mr.  Arnold  was  always  on 
the  right  side ;  and  for  the  conspicuous  service  he  ren- 
dered the  State  and  the  cause  of  honesty,  both  in 
public  and  private  life,  in  a  most  critical  period  of  our 
history,  his  memory  deserves  to  be  always  honored  by 
every  citizen  of  Illinois. 

As  we  all  knew  him,  Mr.  Arnold  was  a  man  of 
great  independence  of  character,  thought,  and  action. 
Making  up  his  mind  as  to  what  was  right,  he  always 
acted  up  to  his  convictions.  He  never  pandered  to 
low  tastes  or  popular  prejudices.  There  was  not  the 
slightest  tinge  of  the  demagogue  in  all  his  composi- 
tion. The  quotation  from  Horace,  made  by  Morris 
Birkbeck  for  the  encouragement  of  Gov.  Coles  during; 
the  great  slavery  struggle  in  1823-4,  when  that  great 
and  good  man  was  so  fiercely  assailed  by  all  the  worst 
elements  in  the  State  for  his  efforts  to  prevent  slavery 
from  defiling  the  soil  of  Illinois,  might  be  applied  to 
Mr.  Arnold  with  great  force: 

"Justum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum, 
Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Non  vultus  instantis  tyranni, 
Mente  quatit  solida."  * 

*  "  Neither  the  ardor  of  citizens  ordering  base  things,  nor  the  face  of  the 
threatening  tyrant,  shakes  a  man  just  and  tenacious  of  principle  from  his  firm 
intentions." 


ADDRESS   OF    HON     E.    B.   WASHBURNE.  45 

I  now  approach  that  portion  of  Mr.  Arnold's  life 
and  career  with  which  I  was  most  familiar  and  in 
which  I  have  always  had  the  greatest  interest.  At 
the  same  election  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  presi- 
dent, in  1860,  Mr.  Arnold  was  elected  a  representative 
in  the  thirty-seventh  congress  from  the  Chicago  dis- 
trict. I  had  known  him  before  as  a  gentleman  and  a 
lawyer,  meeting  him  frequently  at  the  sessions  of  the 
supreme  court  at  Springfield  and  Ottawa.  That  con- 
gress met  in  extra  session  on  the  4th  of  July,  1861. 
Its  meeting  was  one  of  the  most  momentous  events 
ever  recorded  in  the  history  of  our  country.  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  great,  magnanimous,  peaceful,  patriotic, 
just,  had  made  every  effort  consistent  with  his  duty 
and  his  oath  to  support  the  constitution  and  enforce 
the  laws,  to  bring  the  rebellious  States  back  to  their 
allegiance.  The  rebels,  lawless,  defiant,  aggressive, 
had  spurned  every  proposition  that  might  lead  to  an 
understanding  between  the  sections.  Therefore,  it 
was  that  at  the  opening  of  this  congress,  Mr.  Lincoln's 
administration  was  confronted  by  an  open  rebellion. 
Blood  had  been  shed  and  the  flames  of  a  civil  war 
had  been  lighted  in  the  country.  It  was  under  such 
circumstances  Mr.  Lincoln  had  convened  Congress  in 
extra  session.  The  members  of  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  met  under  this  call  for  an  extra 
session  under  a  weight  of  responsibility  which  has 
rarely  rested  upon  public  men. 

At  such  a  crisis  men  became  naturally  allied  to 
each  other.      Intelligent,  patriotic,  courageous,  firm  of 


46  ISAAC    N.   ARNOLD. 

purpose,  and  of  undying  loyalty,  Mr.  Arnold  took  his 
seat  in  that  celebrated  Congress  and  then  commenced 
an  intimacy  and  friendship  between  us,  existing  un- 
broken to  the  day  of  his  death.  The  President  and 
Mr.  Arnold  had  known  each  other  long  and  well. 
They  had  been  associated  as  lawyers  in  the  trial  of 
causes  and  had  been  opposite  counsel  in  important 
litigation.  This  long  association  at  the  Bar  had  made 
them  to  know  one  another  well,  and  had  engendered 
mutual  respect  and  mutual  regard.  Mr.  Lincoln 
hailed  the  election  to  Congress  of  Mr.  Arnold  with 
pleasure,  for  in  him  he  saw  the  faithful  friend,  the 
wise  counsellor,  and  the  loyal  and  patriotic  citizen. 
And  hence  it  was,  during  all  his  administration,  that 
he  gave  to  him  his  fullest  confidence  and  extended  to 
him  so  many  evidences  of  the  high  regard  in  which 
he  held  him. 

Though  a  new  member,  the  consideration  in 
which  Mr.  Arnold  was  held  by  his  colleagues  was 
shown  by  the  unanimous  request  made  to  him  that  he 
should  pronounce  the  eulogy  in  the  House  on  behall 
of  Illinois  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Mr. 
Douglas.  His  address  was  a  glowing  and  merited 
tribute  to  the  memory  of  that  distinguished  man. 
Trained  in  the  arts  of  legislation  by  his  service  in 
the  Illinois  Legislature,  conscious  of  his  own  ability 
and  capacity,  Mr.  Arnold  participated  at  once  in  the 
business  of  the  House.  On  the  29th  day  of  July,  he 
entered  into  the  discussion  of  the  Internal  Revenue 
Bill,  and   in  a  short  and  apt  speech  which  convinced 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.   WASHBURNE.  47 

the  House  of  his  ability  as  a  debator,  and  what  was  to 
be  his  usefulness  as  a  legislator. 

The  regular  session  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Con- 
gress  met  on  Monday,  the  second  day  of  December, 
1 86 1.  The  country  had  then  been  plunged  into  all 
the  horrors  of  a  bloody  civil  war,  and  the  loyal  people 
looked  forward  to  the  opening  of  this  regular  session 
of  Congress  with  the  most  intense  interest.  Mr. 
Arnold  appeared  and  took  his  seat.  He  had  felt  his 
way  somewhat  cautiously  in  the  extra  session,  but 
now  he  believed  himself  equal  to  taking  a  more 
prominent  part  in  the  legislation  of  the  House.  He 
participated  in  the  discussion  of  nearly  all  the  import- 
ant questions  which  came  up  for  action,  and  he  soon 
took  rank  as  one  of  the  ablest  members  ol   the  body. 

I  was  in  the  House  of  Representatives  for  six- 
teen years,  and  during  the  most  important  epoch  of 
our  country's  history  and  at  a  time  when  so  many  ot 
the  ablest  men  of  the  nation  were  members  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  and  was  in  a  position  to 
estimate  and  judge  of  men;  and  I  can  conscientiously 
say  that  I  consider  that  Mr.  Arnold  was  one  of  the 
ablest,  the  most  useful,  and  most  conscientious  mem- 
bers with  whom  I  was  associated.  Always  at  his  post 
in  the  House  and  in  the  committee-room,  he  shunned 
no  labor  nor  left  any  duty  unperformed.  He  studied 
all  questions  and  weighed  all  the  arguments,  pro  and 
con,  on  every  subject  on  which  he  was  called  upon  to 
act.  And  then  in  deportment  and  bearing  he  was 
what    a    public    man    should    be,    amiable,    courteous, 


48  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

affable,  polite,  and  always  a  gentleman,  making  him- 
self esteemed  and  respected  by  all  who  had  the  good 
fortune  to  know  him.  I  have  sometimes  thought  that 
Chicago  never  did  full  justice  to  its  congressman  in 
those  two  celebrated  Congresses  during  the  war.  In 
the  excitement  of  the  time  and  the  whirl  of  events, 
men  were  often  lost  sight  of.  Mr.  Arnold  never  daz- 
zled by  brilliant  speeches,  got  up  for  effect  and  to  gain 
popular  applause  and  cheap  glory,  but  he  devoted 
himself  rather  to  the  serious  subjects  of  legislation 
with  assiduity  and  intelligence.  The  Congressional 
Globe,  during  his  term  of  service,  is  an  enduring 
monument  to  his  great  and  useful  labors,  and  that 
will  remain  as  long  as  the  Republic  shall  endure. 

In  all  matters  of  local  importance  before  Con- 
gress, as  well  as  in  all  matters  in  which  his  constituents 
were  interested,  either  in  the  Departments  or  in  Con- 
gress, Mr.  Arnold  was  especially  active  and  efficient. 
He  gave  the  Ship-Canal  Bill  a  warm  support,  and  his 
speech  on  the  subject  was  one  of  the  ablest  which  was 
made. 

Coming  from  good  old  Revolutionary  and  Rhode 
Island  stock,  born  and  bred  among  the  freedom-lov- 
ing people  of  Northern  New  York,  it  could  hardlv 
have  been  otherwise  than  that  Mr.  Arnold  should 
have  imbibed  the  strongest  feelings  of  hostility  to 
human  slavery.  Through  all  his  political  associations, 
neither  his  opinions  nor  actions  on  that  subject  ever 
changed.  He  always  acted  with  the  anti-slavery  men 
wherever  he  found  them,  and  when  slaverv  raised  the 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.  WASHBURNE.  49 

standard  of  rebellion  against  the  government,  he  took 
the  most  radical  ground  on  the  subject.  He  voted 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia, and  as  early  as  March,  1862,  he  introduced  a 
bill,  sweeping  in  its  provisions,  to  prohibit  slavery  in 
every  place  subject  to  national  jurisdiction.  This  bill 
was  stoutly  resisted,  but  Mr.  Arnold  pressed  it  with 
ability  and  persistence,  and  after  some  amendments,  it 
became  a  law,  June  19,  1862.  He  made  a  speech  in 
the  House  on  this  bill,  on  the  19th  day  of  May,  1862, 
and  from  a  man  of  his  naturally  calm  and  conservative 
temperament,  it  was  not  only  very  able,  but  very  radi- 
cal and  aggressive.  He  denounced  slavery  as  a  mon- 
ster attempting  to  destroy  a  government  which  it  had 
so  loner  controlled.      He  said  no  man  who  loved  his 

O 

country  and  the  Constitution  could  hold  any  other 
position  toward  it  than  one  of  hostility,  and  that  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  weaken  and  destroy  it. 
"  Whenever  we  can  give  it  a  Constitutional  blow,"  he 
exclaimed,  "let  us  do  it."  And  it  may  be  said  to  his 
honor,  few  men  in  Congress,  or  out  of  Congress,  dealt 
harder  blows  at  the  institution  than  he  did. 

The  ablest  and  most  notable  speech  that  Mr. 
Arnold  made  while  a  member  of  Congress  was  that 
on  the  bill  to  confiscate  rebel  property,  made  May  2, 
1862.  After  passing  in  review  the  wickedness  of  the 
Rebellion,  and  the  inhuman  manner  in  which  the 
rebels  had  conducted  the  war,  and  the  necessity  of 
prompt  and  vigorous  action,  he  addressed  himself  to 
the  legal  questions  involved,  in  an  argument  of  great 


50  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

ability  and  research,  and  which  challenged  the  atten- 
tion of  the  lawyers  of  the  House.  He  was  an  able 
lawyer,  and  all  legal  questions  to  which  he  gave  his 
attention  he  treated  with  conspicuous  ability  and  with 
a  felicity  of  language  quite  rare  in  the  discussion  of 
points  of  law. 

From  the  high  standing  of  Mr.  Arnold  in  the 
House,  and  the  advanced  position  he  occupied  on  the 
slavery  question,  it  was  fitting  and  proper  that  he 
should  take  the  initiative  in  a  great  measure  of  legisla- 
tion with  which  his  name  will  ever  be  honorably 
associated,  and  which  was  the  foundation  of  an  enact- 
ment of  more  transcendant  importance  than  any  which 
ever  adorned   the  statute-book  of  any  nation. 

On  the  15th  day  of  February,  1864,  Mr.  Arnold 
introduced  into  the  House  of  Representatives  a  reso- 
lution, which  was  passed,  declaring  that  the  Constitu- 
tion should  be  so  amended  as  to  ABOLISH  SLAVERY 
i.\  the  United  States.  This  was  the  first  step  ever 
taken  by  Congress  in  favor  of  the  abolition  and  pre- 
vention of  slavery  in  the  country.  The  ball  was  set 
in  motion  — the  popular  branch  of  Congress  had  made 
a  solemn  declaration  which  sent  a  throb  of  joy  and 
hope  to  the  heart  of  every  lover  ot  human  freedom. 
The  Senate  was  then  so  constituted  that  the  two- 
thirds'  majority,  necessary  to  submit  a  Constitutional 
amendment,  was  easily  obtainable.  The  House  hav- 
ing led  the  way  by  passing  the  declaratory  resolution 
of  Mr.  Arnold  in  favor  of  a  Constitutional  amendment, 
the   Senate  passed    the  resolution  on    the   8th   day  ol 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.   WASHBURNE.  5  I 

April,  1864.  Hut  it  failed  to  pass  the  House  at  that 
session  of  Congress,  and  it  was  not  until  the  next  ses- 
sion, on  the  1st  day  of  February,  1865,  that  the  two- 
thirds'  majority  was  obtained  in  the  House,  and  in  the 
homely  language  ot    Mr.  Lincoln,  " the  job  finished" 

In  the  debate  in  the  House,  Mr.  Arnold  made  a 
passionate  appeal  for  the  passage  of  the  joint-resolu- 
tion. Warming  up  in  his  remarks,  and  in  a  tone  of 
true  eloquence,  he  exclaimed:  "In  view  of  the  long 
catalogue  of  wrongs  that  slavery  has  inflicted  upon  the 
country,  I  demand  today  of  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  the  death  of  slavery.  We  can  have  no 
permanent  peace  while  slavery  lives.  It  now  reels 
and  staggers  in  its  last  death-struggle.  Let  us  strike 
the  monster  this  last  decisive  blow."  "Pass  this  joint- 
resolution,"  he  continued,  "and  the  thirty-eighth  Con- 
gress will  live  in  history  as  that  which  consummated 
the  great  work  of  freeing  a  continent  from  the  curse 
of  human  bondage.  The  great  spectacle  of  this  vote 
which  knocks  off  the  fetters  of  a  whole  race,  will  make 
this  scene  immortal."  And  further  on  he  continued: 
"I  mean  to  fight  this  cause  of  the  war — this  cause  of 
all  the  expenditure  of  blood  and  treasure  from  which 
my  country  is  now  suffering  ;  this  institution  which 
has  filled  our  whole  land  with  sorrow,  desolation,  and 
anguish.  I  mean  to  fight  it  until  neither  on  the 
statute-book  nor  in  the  Constitution  shall  there  be  left 
a  single  sentence  or  word  which  can  be  construed  to 
sustain  the  stupendous  wrong.  Let  us 


52  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

now,  in  the  name  of  liberty,  of  justice,  and  of  God, 
consummate  this  grand  revolution.  Let  us  now  make 
our  country  the  home  of  the  free ." 

No  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
who  was  present  when  this  resolution  passed  can 
ever  forget  that  extraordinary  scene.  Mr.  Arnold 
was  full  of  rejoicing.  In  a  graphic,  racy,  and  inter- 
esting paper,  entitled  "  Reminiscences  of  Lincoln  and 
of  Congress  during  the  Rebellion,"  read  by  him  in 
July,  1882,  before  the  New- York  Geneological  and 
Biographical  -Society,  he  gave  an  account,  among 
other  things,  of  the  passage  by  Congress  of  the 
"joint  resolution  to  submit  to  the  States  the  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  abolishing  slavery."  After 
seeing  the  great  work,  so  near  to  his  heart,  accom- 
plished, he  tells  of  the  steps  he  took  to  obtain  certain 
souvenirs  connected  with  the  legislation.  When  the 
resolution  had  been  engrossed  he  procured  an  exact 
duplicate  of  the  original,  which  was  to  go  on  file  in 
the  State  department,  and  to  that  obtained  the  signa- 
tures of  all  the  members  of  both  Houses  who  had 
voted  for  it,  to  be  treasured  up  as  a  memento  of  the 
occasion;  and  with  sadness  he  tells  the  story  of  the 
Chicago  Fire,  which  consumed  that  and  so  many 
other  treasures.  Profiting  from  his  inspiration  in  this 
regard,  I  followed  his  example  and  procured  precisely 
the  same  thing  for  myself;  and  looking  at  the  names 
of  all  the  members  of  both  Houses,  in  their  own 
proper  handwriting,  who  voted  for  the  resolution,  there 
will  be  seen  the  name  of  Isaac   N.  Arnold,  written  in 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.  WASHBURNE.  53 

his  own   bold,  clear   hand.      Now  that   he   has   passed 
away,  I  never  look  upon  it  without  emotion. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  limits  of  this  paper  to  do 
full  justice  to  Mr.  Arnold's  congressional  record.  The 
Congressional  Globe  shows  with  what  zeal  and  ability 
he  entered  into  the  business  of  the  House,  and  what 
light  he  shed  on  all  subjects  to  which  he  gave  his 
attention.  He  went  to  Congress  to  serve  the  country 
in  its  hour  of  peril  and  not  for  the  objects  of  an  un- 
worthy ambition.  His  colleague  and  his  friend,  I 
know  how  conscientiously  and  laboriously,  how  hon- 
estly and  how  ably  he  discharged  his  every  duty.  To 
those  who  knew  him  it  goes  without  saying,  that  he 
was  thoroughly  incorruptible.  There  was  never  a 
lobbyist  or  corruptionist  bold  enough  to  approach  him 
with  even  the  slightest  suggestion  as  to  any  action  on 
his  part  favoring  any  object  for  private  gain,  and  not 
for  the  public  good.  Such  was  his  high  character,  his 
incorruptible  integrity,  and  his  elevated  code  of  morals, 
that  no  man  ever  dared  to  approach  him  with  an  im- 
proper suggestion  in  respect  of  his  official  action. 

Mr.  Arnold's  congressional  career  ended  with  the 
Thirty-eighth  Congress,  March  3d,  1865.  During  his 
whole  term  of  service,  not  only  from  a  sense  of  duty, 
but  from  his  high  personal  regard  for  the  president, 
he  had  given  the  administration  of  Mr.  Lincoln  a 
loyal,  able,  and  an  efficient  support.  It  was  a  matter 
of  great  regret  and  disappointment  to  that  distin- 
guished man,  as  well  as  to  all  of  his  colleainies,  that 
he  did  not  return   to   Congress.      He    had    served   his 

5 


54  ISAAC   X.   ARNOLD. 

country  and  his  constituents  so  faithfully  and  with 
such  marked  ability  that  he  had  challenged  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  all  familiar  with  his  public  career. 
On  his  return  to  his  home  in  Chicago,  at  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  long  session  of  Congress  in  July,  1864, 
he  was  tendered  a  magnificent  reception,  and  a  vote 
was  passed,  giving  to  him  the  thanks  of  the  meeting 
lor  the  able  and  valuable  services  he  had  rendered  his 
country  and  his  constituents  in  Congress.  While  not 
a  candidate  for  re-election  in  1864,  he  entered  into  the 
canvass  for  the  re-election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  with  great 
spirit,  and  his  voice  was  heard  in  many  States  urging 
the  people  to  sustain  him  in  the  great  work  of  sup- 
pressing the  rebellion. 

After  the  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Mr. 
Arnold  being  then  already  engaged  in  writing  a 
"History  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  Overthrow  of 
Slavery  in  the  United  States,"  he  accepted  the 
appointment  from  President  Johnson  of  auditor  of 
the  treasury  for  the  post-office  department,  as  a 
residence  in  Washington  afforded  him  a  more  ready 
access  to  documents  necessary  for  him  to  have  in 
preparing  his  work.  Subsequently,  differing  with 
President  Johnson  in  respect  of  the  policy  he  had 
adopted,  he  resigned  the  office  which  he  had  received 
at  his  hands.  Returning  to  his  home  in  Chicago  in 
1867,  he  completed  his  "History  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
and  the  Overthrow  of  Slavery."  He  brought  to  the 
preparation  of  that  work  the  qualities  of  an  able  and 
conscientious   historian,  who   wrote   verv   largely   from 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.  WASHBURNE.  55 

personal  knowledge  and  personal  observation.  His 
long  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
given  him  a  thorough  knowledge  of  his  character  and 
his  mode  of  thought  and  action.  As  a  member  of 
that  Congress  for  four  years  during-  the  war,  and 
which  had  accomplished  such  prodigies  for  the  coun- 
try, he  was  from  his  own  participation  in  it  enabled  to 
speak  with  authority. 

I  have  recently  read  again  this  work  and  am 
more  impressed  than  ever  with  it  as  a  work  of  sur- 
passing interest  and  of  exceptional  historic  value.  No 
where  else  can  be  found  a  more  just  appreciation  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  and  a  more  graphic  and  truthful  recital 
ot  events  then  transpiring  in  Congress  and  on  the 
theatre  of  military  and  political  action  throughout  the 
country.  Important  and  interesting  tacts  are  to  be 
obtained  therein  which  are  not   to  be  found  elsewhere. 

Resuming  his  law  practice  in  Chicago  in  1872, 
Mr.  Arnold  continued  actively  in  his  profession  for 
two  or  three  vears.  when  tailing  health  compelled  him 
to  abandon  it.  From  that  time  till  his  death,  he  lived 
the  lite  ot  a  retired  gentleman  in  his  pleasant  home  on 
the  North-Side,  among  his  books  and  papers,  where. 
surrounded  by  his  interesting  and  amiable  family  and 
congenial  friends,  he  dispensed  an  elegant  and  graci- 
ous hospitality.  It  was  then  he  found  leisure  to 
devote  himself  to  favorite  literary  pursuits.  With  an 
inclination  for  historic  research,  with  that  power  ot 
analysis  which  a  long  practice  at  the  Bar  had  given 
him.  and  with  a  rare  felicity  of  composition,  he 
devoted   himselt   to   historic   themes. 


56  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

It  was  in  1880  that  Mr.  Arnold  brought  out  his 
"  Life  of  Benedict  Arnold  —his  Patriotism  and  his 
Treason,"  a  most  comely  volume  of  more  than  four 
hundred  pages.  The  book  has  been  extensively  read 
in  the  most  intelligent  circles.  While  it  provoked  a 
certain  measure  of  criticism  in  some  quarters,  yet  it 
was  generally  commended  for  the  ability,  fairness,  and 
independence  shown  by  the  author.  It  was  perhaps 
a  bold  undertaking  to  write  the  life  of  a  man  whose 
name  and  memory  were  so  loaded  down  with  infamy 
as  were  those  of  Benedict  Arnold.  But  the  author 
frankly  tells  us  in  his  introduction  what  led  him  to 
undertake  to  tell  the  story  of  Benedict  Arnold's  life 
truthfully  and  impartially.  He  was  conscious  of  the 
deep  and  universal  prejudice  existing  against  him,  and 
was  aware  that  the  American  people  would  listen  with 
impatience  to  his  narrative.  He  had  no  desire  to 
change  the  indignation  and  resentment  felt  against 
him,  nor  could  he  either  excuse  or  extenuate  his 
guilt.  He  wished  "to  make  known  his  patriotic  ser- 
vices, his  sufferings,  heroism,  and  the  wrongs  which 
drove  him  to  a  desperate  action  and  induced  one  ol 
the  most  heroic  men  of  an  heroic  age  to  perpetrate  an 
unpardonable  crime."  Influenced  by  such  considera- 
tions, and  responsible  only  to  himself  for  his  opinions 
and  judgments,  Mr.  Arnold  did  not  hesitate  to  write 
the  "  Life  of  Benedict  Arnold."  It  is  the  province  of 
history  to  record  tacts,  to  pursue  investigations,  and 
narrate  circumstances  without  regard  to  the  characters 
of  individuals.      To  sum  up;  Mr.  Arnold   has  given  to 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    15.  WASHBURNE.  57 

the  world  a  book  oi  exceptional  historic  value,  and  for 
which  all  the  lovers  of  biography  and  students  of  our 
Revolutionary  history  must   be  grateful. 

It  is  not  the  first  time  that  there  has  been  written 
the  lite  of  a  man  who  has  been  set  up  in  the  "  pillory 
of  history."  Dr.  Robinet  never  lost  anything  in  the 
estimation  ot  the  French  people  by  writing  the 
memoirs  of  Danton,  nor  Ernest  Hamel  for  his  history 
of  Robespierre,  nor  Alfred  Bougeart  by  his  life  of 
the  monster  Marat.  Everywhere,  Mr.  Arnold  has 
added  to  his  reputation  among  literary,  thoughtful, 
and  reading  men,  by  his  "  Life  of  Benedict  Arnold." 
In  the  somewhat  heated  controversy  which  arose  over 
the  question  of  Gen.  Arnold's  military  services,  the 
historian  fully  vindicated  the  positions  he  had  taken. 
for  no  man  was  more  successful  in  marshalling  facts  or 
in  presenting  deductions  from  established   premises. 

But  the  great  work  of  Mr.  Arnold's  life,  and 
upon  which  his  reputation  as  a  biographer  and  histo- 
rian must  rest,  is  his  "  Life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"' 
now  in  course  of  publication.  His  history  of  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  the  overthrow  of  slavery,  through  an 
able,  valuable,  and  interesting  work,  as  I  have  de- 
scribed, was  never  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  author, 
so  far  as  it  treated  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  determined, 
therefore,  two  years  since,  to  write  anew  the  "  Life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,"  in  the  light  of  all  the  new  material 
he  had  gathered.  Stimulated  by  his  admiration  and 
friendship  for  that  illustrious  man,  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  preparation  of  a  life  of  one  of  the  greatest  men 


5 8  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

whoever  "lived  in  the  tide  of  time"— a  man  whose 
name  is  on  all  our  lips  and  whose  memory  is  in  all  our 
hearts  -Abraham  Lincoln.  He  entered  upon  the 
work  con  amove,  and  devoted  to  it  all  his  efforts  and  all 
his  thoughts.  The  preparation  of  the  work  occupied 
all  his  time  and  absorbed  all  his  attention.  So  closely 
did  he  pursue  his  labors,  and  so  intently  were  his 
thoughts  occupied  thereon,  that  his  health,  at  no  time 
rugged,  within  the  last  few  years,  began  percepti- 
bly to  give  way.  Still  he  persevered,  and  still  he 
labored  on,  till  the  last  chapter  was  finished,  and  the 
last  finishing  touches  given.  Never  shall  I  forget  the 
last  interview  I  had  with  him  only  a  few  days  before 
he  died,  as  he  lay  pallid  and  emaciated  on  his  bed  ol 
death.  Knowing  all  the  interest  I  had  felt  in  his 
book,  he  began  to  speak  of  it  in  feeble  and  even 
plaintive  tones,  and  closed  by  saying:  "It  was  only 
when  I  had  completed  the  last  chapter  that  I  col- 
lapsed." And  so  it  was,  strengthened  and  buoyed  up 
in  his  purpose  to  complete  the  great  work  of  his  life, 
when  the  task  was  finished,  he  laid  down  to  die.  The 
hour  of  his  earthly  existence  had  come  finally  to  strike. 
Neither  the  prayers  of  wife  and  children,  who  did  so 
much  to  sooth  the  pangs  of  his  parting  life,  nor  all 
their  love,  care,  and  devotion;  neither  the  hopes  ol 
friends,  nor  the  skill  of  physicians  could  stay  the  hand 
of  death.  His  work  was  done,  and  peacefully  and 
calmly  and  in  Christian  resignation  he  yielded  up  his 
soul  to  the  God  who  gave  it. 

Mr.    Arnold's    "  Life  of  Abraham    Lincoln,"   en- 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.    E.    B.   WASHBURNE.  59 

riched  by  a  captivating  style,  carefully  studied  and 
drawn  from  the  most  reliable  sources  of  information, 
will  become  the  standard  life  of  a  man  whose  name, 
linked  in  glory  to  that  of  Washington,  will  go  down  to 
the  end  of  all   the  ages. 

Of  an  active  mind,  taking  an  interest  in  all  pass- 
ing events,  Mr.  Arnold  always  found  some  subject  to 
occupy  his  attention  and  to  engage  his  pen,  Inde- 
pendent of  the  books  he  had  written  and  published, 
he  was  the  author  of  a  great  number  of  sketches, 
papers,  biographies,  and  reviews,  many  of  which  have 
been  published,  and  all  of  them  are  interesting  and 
valuable  in  a  personal  and  historical  point  of  view. 
Associated  for  half-a-century  with  Illinois,  and  having 
been  long  and  honorably  identified  with  the  State,  he 
was  always  interested  in  all  that  appertained  to  our 
history  and  our  public  men.  As  a  member  of  the 
legal  profession,  and  as  a  man  in  public  life,  he  was 
closely  allied  to  many  of  the  lawyers  and  judges,  and 
to  many  men  in  official  stations  in  the  State,  and  he 
was  never  happier  than  when  recounting  the  reminis- 
cences of  his  earlier  professional  and  political  life. 

To  everything  he  undertook,  Mr.  Arnold  brought 
the  qualities  of  a  ripe  intelligence,  great  vigor,  and  a 
sound  judgment.  When  at  an  age  when  most  men 
rest,  he  was  pursuing  to  its  legitimate  honors  and 
rewards  the  career  of  a  man  of  letters  and  of  an  his- 
torian. Of  the  productions  of  Mr.  Arnold's  busy  and 
gifted  pen  which  have  been  published  in  pamphlet 
form,  I  may  mention  : 


60  ISAAC   N.    ARNOLD. 

i.  His  Address  before  the  Chicago  Historical 
Society  of  Nov.  9th,  1868,  giving  a  history  of  the 
Society,  etc. 

2.  "Sketch  of  Col.  John  H.  Kinzie "  :  read 
before  the  Chicago  Historical   Society,  July  11,  1877. 

3.  "  Recollections  of  the  Early  Chicago  and  Illi- 
nois Bar "  :  a  lecture  before  the  Chicago  Bar  Asso- 
ciation, June  10,  1880. 

4.  "  Reminiscences  of  the  Illinois  Bar  Forty 
Years  Ago  "  :  read  before  the  Bar  Association  of  the 
State  of  Illinois,  at  Springfield,  Jan.  7,  1881. 

5.  A  Paper  on  Abraham  Lincoln:  read  before 
the  Royal  Historical  Society  in  London,  June  16, 
1881. 

6.  A  Paper  on  William  B.  Ogden:  read  before 
the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  Dec.  20,  1881,  on  the 
presentation  of  a  portrait  of  Mr.  Ogden,  by  Healy,  to 
the  Historical   Society. 

7.  "  Reminiscences  of  Lincoln  and  of  Congress 
during  the  Rebellion":  being  the  anniversary  address, 
delivered  before  the  New- York  Geneological  and  Bio- 
graphical  Society,  April  15,   1882. 

8.  "Benedict  Arnold  at  Saratoga";  reprinted 
from  the  "United  Service."  "  Reply  to  John  Austin 
Stevens,  and  new  evidence  of  Mr.  Bancroft's  error." 

9.  A  Paper  on  James  Fennimore  Cooper:  read 
in  1883  before  the  Chicago  Literary  Society. 

10.  Letter  of  Isaac  N.  Arnold  to  Bishop  Clark- 
son:  "Was  Dr.  De  Koven  legally  elected  Bishop  of 
Illinois  ?  " 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.   B.  WASHBURNE.  6 1 

ii.  A  Paper  read  before  the  Chicago  Philo- 
sophical Society,  Dec.  10,  1883,  entitled,  "The  Lay- 
man's Faith." 

Mr.  Arnold  had  been  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Chicago  Historical  Society,  and  served  many  years  as 
one  of  its  vice-presidents.  On  the  19th  day  of  De- 
cember, 1876,  he  was  elected  president,  and  held  the 
position  uninterruptedly  until  the  day  of  his  death — a 
period  of  about  seven  and  one -half  years.  So  long 
identified  with  the  Society,  and  giving  to  it  his  atten- 
tion and  services,  he  did  much  to  elevate  its  character 
and  add  to  its  usefulness.  We  can  never  forget  the 
regularity  of  his  attendance  upon  all  the  meetings  of 
the  Society,  his  watchful  care  over  all  its  interests,  nor 
the  dignity  and  courtesy  which  he  presided  over  our 
deliberations. 

With  an  intellectual  and  finely-chiseled  face,  of  an 
erect  and  well-formed  person,  of  quiet  and  gentleman- 
ly manners,  and  courteous  carriage  and  bearing,  Mr. 
Arnold  was  a  man  who  always  attracted  attention. 
He  was  the  soul  of  probity  and  honor.  Neither  the 
purity  of  his  private  life,  nor  the  integrity  of  his  public 
conduct  was  ever  challenged  ;  but  in  every  position 
of  life  he  stood  before  the  world  as  an  honest  man,  a 
cultivated  gentleman,  a  good  citizen,  and  a  public  ser- 
vant without  reproach.  Those  of  us  who  have  known 
him  so  well  in  this  Society  and  in  the  daily  walk  of 
his  life  and  conversation,  will  always  guard  for  him  a 
profound  souvenir  of  respect  and  affection. 


62  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

Husband,  father,  friend,  neighbor,  citizen  —  his 
ashes  repose  on  the  shores  of  that  lake  where  he  had 
passed  a  long  and  an  honored  life,  and  its  waves  shall 
forever  sing  his  requiem. 


TRIBUTE   OF   HON.  THOMAS   DRUMMOND. 


MR.  PRESIDENT:  —  I  propose  only  to  make  a  few 
general  remarks,  leaving  details  to  others. 

When  Mr.  Arnold  came  to  Chicago  in  KS36,  if  some 
one  had  asked  what  were  the  qualities  which  would  make 
him  one  of  the  principal  men  who  would  form  and  influ- 
ence the  elements  of  the  growth  of  a  great  city,  he  would 
have  said  that,  as  a  professional  man,  he  must  be  able  and 
true  to  his  clients  ;  as  a  public  man,  conscientious  and 
faithful  in  the  discharge  of  all  trusts  committed  to  his 
hands,  and  as  a  citizen,  honorable  in  all  the  relations 
which  attach  to  that  name.  Mr.  Arnold,  in  his  life,  from 
that  time,  when  tried  in  these  various  positions,  proved 
that  he  possessed  all  these  qualities,  and  he  was  thus  one 
of  the  leading  men  of  the  city,  whose  influence  was  always 
exerted  for  good. 

By  his  talents,  industry,  and  fidelity,  and  conscious 
that  success  was  with  him  a  necessity — for  it  is  not  those 
who  have,  but  those  who  gain  a  competence  who  achieve 
great  distinction  at  the  bar — he  became  one  of  the  most 
eminent  lawyers  of  the  city  and  of  the  State.  No  man 
ever  had  his  heart  more  in  his  cause,  or  more  fully  bent 
every  facultv  of  his  mind  to  succeed. 


64  ISAAC   N.   ARNOLD. 

As  a  public  man,  the  sphere  of  his  usefulness  was 
greatly  enlarged.  He,  as  a  member  of  the  legislature  and 
as  a  citizen,  made  the  most  strenuous  efforts  and  exhibited 
great  ability  in  his  arguments  and  speeches  to  maintain 
the  honor  of  the  State  in  its  dealings  with  its  creditors. 
As  a  member  of  Congress,  he  gave  the  whole  energy  of 
his  mind  and  heart  to  sustain  the  administration  of  Lin- 
coln; to  uphold  the  rights  of  man;  to  destroy  slavery,  and 
to  preserve  and  consolidate  the  union  of  these  States. 
We  who  were  acquainted  with  him  in  those  trying  days 
know  with  how  much  devotion  he  sought  to  accomplish 
these  great  objects.  A  warm  personal  friend  of  Lincoln, 
he  was  one  of  his  most  trusted  counsellors  and  advisers. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  overrate  the  value  of  the  ser- 
vices which  he  rendered  to  his  State  and  the  Nation  while 
in  public  life. 

As  a  man  and  a  citizen,  his  influence  and  efforts  were 
always  exerted  in  favor  of  sound  morals  and  good  govern- 
ment. When  we  look  back  to  the  condition  of  affairs  that 
existed  here  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  we  can  appreciate  the 
effect  produced  on  professional,  social,  and  political  life 
by  the  character,  habits,  and  conduct  of  Mr.  Arnold,  and 
can  say,  as  the  influence  of  a  man  so  conspicuous  is  all- 
pervading,  that  the  world  is  better  for  the  life  of  such  a 
man. 

It  is  fitting,  therefore,  that  there  should  be  placed  on 


TRIBUTE   OF    HON.   THOMAS    DRUMMOND.  65 

record,  and  especially  in  this  Society,  in  which  he  took 
so  deep  an  interest,  and  of  which  he  was  so  long  the  pre- 
siding officer,  an  enduring  memorial  of  the  estimate  which 
has  been  formed  of  his  life  and  public  services  by  his  con- 
temporaries, in  order  that  those  who  come  after  us  here 
may  know  that  he,  of  whom  we  now  speak,  was,  in  our 
judgment,  thus  of  record,  an  eminent  lawyer,  a  true  patriot, 
and  an  honorable  citizen. 


TRIBUTE   OF   HON.  VAN   H.  HIGGINS. 


Mr.  PRESIDENT: — I  feel  great  distrust  and  diffidence 
in  my  ability  to  say  what  I  think  ought  to  be  said  of  the 
honored  deceased,  whom  I  had  known  since  his  early  man- 
hood, now  more  than  forty  years,  and  with  whom  I  had 
been  on  terms  of  great  intimacy  and  friendship  for  more 
than  thirty  years.  I  am  proud  of  that  intimacy  and  friend- 
ship. I  am  proud  of  his  record  as  a  man  and  as  an  hon- 
ored citizen  of  Chicago,  and  I  am  grateful  for  the  example 
of  his  life  and  character.  We  owe  a  tribute  of  respect  to 
the  late  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  who  devoted  the  best  energies 
of  his  whole  life  to  objects  of  benevolence  and  to  the 
advancement  of  the  cause  of  human  freedom.  His  patri- 
otism and  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  and  its  pre- 
servation were  untiring  and   ceaseless.     In  Congress  and 


66  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

out  of  Congress,  he  was  ever  active  and  zealous,  watchful 
and  constant.  In  the  beginning  of  the  great  struggle  for 
the  preservation  of  our  national  existence,  Isaac  N.  Arnold 
was  foremost  in  all  that  could  be  done  to  preserve  and 
perpetuate  this  Union.  Chicago  had  no  truer  patriot,  no 
better  friend  of  the  enslaved  negro,  no  more  sympathizing 
friend  of  the  wretched  and  suffering  everywhere  and  at  all 
times  than  Isaac  N.  Arnold.  Although  I  had  known  him 
in  all  the  relations  of  life,  socially,  politically,  and  profes- 
sionally, I  am  here  to  speak  only  of  his  professional  life, 
and  of  Isaac  N.  Arnold  as  a  lawyer.  Other  friends  more 
eloquent  will  speak,  I  am  sure,  of  the  usefulness  of  the  life 
of  the  deceased,  and  of  the  beaut)-  and  loveliness  of  his 
general  character,  which,  during  a  long  lifetime,  so  gained 
and  held  our  love  and  affection.  They  will  speak  of  him 
in  the  domestic  relations  of  his  life,  as  a  trust}-  friend,  a 
faithful  husband,  a  kind  father;  as  a  distinguished  and 
honored  citizen;  as  a  true  gentleman,  pure  and  spotless  in 
all  things,  and  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  They  will  tell 
of  his  philanthropy.  Isaac  N.  Arnold  was  from  his  youth 
a  philanthropist.  He  was  the  friend  of  enslaved  and 
wretched  bondsmen.  He  consecrated  his  best  energies 
during  his  whole  life  to  the  emancipation  of  the  poor  slave, 
one  of  the  noblest  objects  within  the  range  of  human  be- 
nevolence. It  was  in  the  cause  and  interest  of  the  poor 
slave  that  his  heart  swelled  with  more  tenderness  and  his 


TRIBUTE    OF    HON.    VAN    II.    HIGGINS.  67 

purse  was  opened  more  freely  than  in  any  other.  They 
will  speak  of  his  great  and  untiring  efforts  in  his  early 
manhood  in  originating  and  organizing  the  Free-soil  party 
of  the  United  States.  They  will  speak  of  patriotic,  un- 
selfish, and  untiring  devotion  to  the  Union  cause  during 
our  late  struggle,  and  of  his  active,  constant,  zealous,  watch- 
ful care  of  the  public  interests  and  the  public  trusts  con- 
fided to  him  ;  of  his  eminent  and  useful  services  throughout 
a  long  life,  and  of  him  as  a  citizen  of  whom  Chicago  has 
always  been  proud. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  speak  of  the  honored  deceased, 
save  of  him  in  his  professional  character  as  an  advocate 
and  as  a  lawyer.  Air.  Arnold,  in  his  earl)'  life,  was  not 
favored  by  fortune.  He  had  not  the  advantages  of  a  col- 
legiate education.  He  had  only  such  opportunities  as 
were  afforded  by  the  country-schools  and  village  academy. 
These  he  improved  to  such  an  extent  as  to  fully  prepare 
him  for  the  prominent  positions  which  he  afterward  occu- 
pied during  his  life,  and  which  he  filled  so  creditably  to 
himself  and  so  satisfactorily  to  his  friends.  At  the  early 
age  of  fifteen  years,  young  Arnold  found  himself  thrown 
upon  his  own  resources,  and  from  that  time  began  the 
struggles  of  life  for  success  and  for  future  usefulness.  He 
was  emphatically  "the  artist  of  his  own  fortune."  From 
seventeen  to  twenty,  he  occupied  his  time  in  teaching  half 
the  year,  to  enable  him   to   pursue  his  studies  the  other 


68  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

half.  He  divided  his  time  during  this  period  between 
academic  study,  teaching,  and  reading  law.  During  this 
period  he  entered  the  law- office  of  Richard  Cooper  of 
Cooperstown,  N.  Y.  He  subsequently  became  a  student 
in  the  office  of  Judge  E.  B.  Morehouse.  In  1835,  when 
he  had  scarcely  attained  his  majority,  he  was  admitted  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  New  York.  He  immediately  there- 
after formed  a  partnership  with  Judge  Morehouse,  which 
continued  until  his  removal  to  Chicago.  In  1837,  he 
formed  a  partnership  with  Mahlon  D.  Ogden  of  this  city, 
which  continued  for  several  years,  building  up  a  large  and 
lucrative  business.  While  a  member  of  that  firm  in  1841, 
Mr.  Arnold,  being  then  only  twenty-seven  years  of  age, 
commenced  and  carried  through  to  a  successful  termina- 
tion, unaided  and  alone,  the  celebrated  case  of  Bronson  vs. 
Kinzie,  which  was  finally  determined  by  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  winter  of  1842.  I  men- 
tion this  case  because  of  its  being  a  leading  case  in  this 
country,  among  its  celebrated  cases,  and  because  of  its  in- 
volving grave  constitutional  questions  which  Mr.  Arnold 
was  able  to  grapple  with  at  that  youthful  period  of  his  life, 
arguing  this  case  at  twenty -seven  years  of  age  in  the 
highest  court  in  the  world,  and  contending  against  the 
ablest  lawyers  in  the  Nation.  It  demonstrates  the  learn- 
ing and  capacity,  the  courage  and  fixedness  of  purpose  of 
the  young  lawyer  more  satisfactorily  than  any  words  of 
euloov. 


TRIBUTE    OF   HON.    VAX    II.    HIGGINS.  69 

Mr.  Arnold  was  more  than  a  powerful  and  successful 
advocate  and  trial  lawyer.  He  was  a  learned  lawyer — a 
jurist,  in  the  just  sense  of  that  term.  For  more  than 
thirty  years  Mr.  Arnold  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Chicago 
bar.  As  a  nisi  priiis  or  trial  lawyer  there  was  scarcely 
his  equal  in  the  State;  probably  it  can  truthfully  be  said 
that  he  was  one  of  the  most  successful,  ingenious,  and 
powerful  jury  lawyers  in  the  Western  country.  The 
records  of  the  various  courts,  State  and  Federal,  show 
Mr.  Arnold  to  have  had  an  extensive  and  varied  practice. 
Few  lawyers  in  this  or  any  other  city  have  had  a  greater 
number  of  cases  before  the  courts  than  Mr.  Arnold,  and 
these  cases  were  generally  of  great  importance,  and  in- 
volved the  most  varied  learning,  and  called  for  the  appli- 
cation of  the  most  intricate  and  abstruse  questions  of  law. 
For  a  time,  Mr.  Arnold  made  a  specialty  of  criminal  prac- 
tice, and  such  was  his  success  for  many  years  that  no  man 
defended  by  him  was  ever  convicted.  His  first  important 
criminal  case  was  the  trial  of  a  negro  named  Davit,  who 
was  accused  of  murdering  his  brother.  Mr.  Arnold  being 
satisfied  of  his  innocence,  volunteered  to  defend  him,  and 
procured  his  acquittal.  Among  other  noted  criminal  cases 
in  which  he  appeared  as  counsel,  that  of  Taylor  Driscoll, 
charged  with  the  murder  of  John  Campbell,  the  leader  of 
a  band  of  "regulators"  in  Ogle  County,  111.,  is  perhaps  the 
most  noted.  He  defended  many  other  persons  charged 
6 


70  ISAAC    N.   ARNOLD. 

with  murder  in  this  and  other  counties,  and,  except  in  the 
case  of  Green,  in  this  city,  in  1854,  who  committed  suicide 
before  the  final  trial,  it  is  believed  he  was  successful  in 
every  instance. 

There  is  no  one  of  the  older  members  of  the  Chicago 
bar  but  will  accord  to  Mr.  Arnold  the  credit  of  having 
been  one  of  the  best  trial  lawyers  that  ever  belonged  to 
the  Chicago  bar.  Mr.  Arnold  attained  in  life  and  in  his 
profession  all  that  an  honorable  and  well-ordered  ambition 
could  hope  for.  He  attained  great  eminence  and  distinc- 
tion in  his  profession  and  as  a  citizen.  He  acquired  a 
competency,  and  his  later  years  found  him  enjoying  the 
comforts  which  wealth  brings.  He  was  a  marked  and 
conspicuous  figure  in  the  growth  and  development  of  our 
city,  and  his  name  will  long  be  remembered  as  one  of  the 
originators  and  members  and  as  the  president  of  this 
Society,  and  as  being  connected  with  nearly  every  enter- 
prise of  benevolence,  culture,  refinement,  and  growth  de- 
veloped in  our  city  since  he  has  been  amongst  us. 

I  may  say  of  him  as  a  lawyer  and  as  a  citizen,  in 
the  language  of  Edmund  Burke:  "In  all  the  qualities  in 
which  personal  merit  has  a  place,  in  culture,  in  erudition, 
in  genius,  in  honor,  in  generosity,  in  humanity,  in  every 
sentiment  and  every  liberal  accomplishment,  he  was  the 
peer  of  any  man." 


TRIBUTE   OF   WM.    F.    DE  WOLF.  J\ 

Wm.  F.  DeWolf,  Esq.,  then  offered  the  following 
resolution: 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Chicago  Historical 
Society  be  and  are  hereby  presented  to  the  Hon.  E.  B. 
Washburne,  the  Hon.  Thomas  Drummond,  and  the  Hon. 
Van  H.  Higgins  for  their  graceful  tributes  to  the  memory 
of  our  late  president,  the  Hon.  Isaac  Newton  Arnold,  and 
also  to  the  Hon.  John  Wentworth  for  his  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  our  late  vice-president,  the  Hon.  Thomas 
Hoyne  ;  and  that  the  Committee  on  Publication  of  the 
Society  cause  these  tributes  to  be  printed,  for  the  use  of 
the  Society,  in  pamphlet  form. 


TRIBUTE   OF  WM.  F.  DeWOLF. 


In  connection  with  this  resolution  in  respect  of  Mr. 
Arnold,  may  I  be  permitted  to  say  a  word  expressing  my 
love  and  admiration  for  our  departed  friend  and  president. 
It  was  my  great  privilege  from  the  time  I  came  to  Chi- 
cago to  be  able  to  call  him  my  friend.  We  lived  many 
years  adjoining  neighbors.  Our  children  grew  up  together, 
loving  and  beloved,  until  at  last  I  came  to  look  upon  him 
as  my  best  friend  outside  my  own  family.  I  dare  not 
trust  myself  to  relate  his  acts  of  kindness.  You  will 
pardon  me  for  thus  alluding  to  what,  perhaps,  some  might 


/2  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

think  had  better  be  sealed  within  the  sacred  precincts  of 
individual  memory.  Our  doors  were  open  to  each  other, 
and  we  went  in  and  out  without  restraint.  In  his  family, 
Mr.  Arnold  came  up  to  the  highest  standard  of  husband, 
father,  and  friend.  He  did  "  not  dull  his  palm  with 
entertainment  of  each  new -hatched,  unfledged  comrade, 
but  the  friends  he  had,  and  their  adoption  tried,  he  grap- 
pled to  his  soul  with  hooks  of  steel."  "  He  was  the  son 
of  his  own  works,"  and  those  works  live  after  him  and 
will  always  remain  to  testify  to  his  worth  and  praise  him 
in  the  gates. 


ILLINOIS   STATE  BAR  ASSOCIATION. 


ADDRESS    OF    HON.   E.   B.   WASHBURNE. 

ON  the  invitation  of  the  Illinois  State  Bar  Association 
at  their  annual  meeting  at  Springfield,  111.,  Tues- 
day, January  13,  1885,  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne  read  the 
following  paper: 

Gentlemen   ok  the    Illinois   State   Bar   Association, 
and    Ladies   and   Gentlemen: 

In  the  death  of  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  who  expired 
at  his  residence  in  Chicago,  April  24,  1884,  the  bar  of  the 
State  of  Illinois  lost  one  of  its  oldest  and  most  distin- 
guished members.  Mr.  Arnold  commenced  the  study  of 
his  profession  in  the  office  of  Richard  Cooper,  Esq.,  of 
Cooperstown,  N.  Y.  He  subsequently  entered  the  office 
of  Judge  E.  B.  Morehouse  of  the  same  place,  and  where 
he  remained  until  his  admission  to  the  bar  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  Nov.  7,  1836.  As  soon  as  he  had  obtained 
his  license,  and  in  the  fall  of  that  year,  he  came  to  Chi- 
cago and  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession,  but 
he  was  not  enrolled  at  the  bar  of  the  supreme  court  until 
Dec.  9,  1841.  He  soon  gave  evidence  of  that  legal  ability 
which  in  later  years  put  him  at  the  fore-front  of  the  pro- 
fession. 

He  was  careful  and  painstaking  and  always  devoted 


74  ISAAC   N.    ARNOLD. 

to  the  interests  of  his  clients.  In  the  collection  of  moneys 
and  administration  of  all  trusts  he  was  scrupulously  exact, 
and  it  could  be  said  that  his  clients  never  had  to  collect 
their  money  twice.  Chicago  was  then  but  a  small  village, 
and  Cook  County  embraced  a  half-dozen  or  more  large 
counties  that  now  surround  it.  As  new  counties  were 
organized  out  of  the  territory  of  Cook  County,  Mr. 
Arnold  was  sought  for  in  the  most  important  cases,  and 
whenever  he  appeared  he  achieved  a  high  reputation  as 
a  jury  lawyer  and  as  a  counsellor.  It  was  quite  early  in 
his  professional  life  (in  1841)  that  Mr.  Arnold  was  brought 
to  the  special  notice  of  the  profession  by  his  connection 
with  the  celebrated  case  of  Bronson  v.  Kinzie  et  als.,  and 
which  he  prosecuted  to  a  final  decision  in  the  supreme 
court  of  the  United  States,  and  which  is  reported  in  the 
first  of  Howard.  This  case  has  gone  into  the  judical 
history  of  the  country  as  a  leading  case,  and  one  of  the 
most  important  ever  decided  by  the  highest  judicial  tribu- 
nal of  the  land. 

The  case  arose  in  a  critical  period  in  the  history  of 
our  State.  In  the  midst  of  a  great  and  sweeping  depres- 
sion of  business,  and  the  depreciation  of  all  values,  dema- 
gogues had  risen  up  all  over  the  State,  who  sought  to 
debauch  the  public  credit  and  stain  the  public  faith. 
Popular  clamor  threatened  the  repudiation  of  our  State 
debt  and  attempted  to  postpone  the  enforcement  of  pri- 
vate contracts. 


ADDRESS   OF   HON.   E.   B.    WASHBURNE.  75 

Mr.  Arnold  was  vehement  in  his  denunciation  of  stay- 
laws  and  of  repudiation,  and  determined  to  test  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  act  of  the  legislature  which  provided 
that  property  should  be  appraised,  and  unless  two-thirds 
of  its  appraised  value  should  be  bid,  it  should  not  be  sold. 
Mr.  Arnold  took  the  ground  that  such  legislation,  so  far 
as  regarded  contracts  already  entered  into,  was  in  viola- 
tion of  the  constitutional  provision  which  inhibited  any 
State  from  passing  any  law  impairing  the  obligation  of 
contracts.  He  soon  found  a  way  to  test  the  matter  in  the 
supreme  court  of  the  United  States.  A  client  of  his, 
Arthur  Bronson  of  New  York,  put  into  his  hands  for  fore- 
closure a  mortgage  on  property  in  Chicago,  given  to  secure 
a  debt  before  the  passage  of  the  stay-law.  In  1841,  he 
filed  a  bill  for  foreclosure  in  the  United  States  court  at 
Springfield,  praying  for  a  strict  foreclosure  and  a  sale  to 
the  highest  bidder,  without  regard  to  the  redemption, 
appraisement,  or  stay-laws.  When  the  case  came  on  for 
trial,  Justice  McLean  sat  with  Judge  Pope.  There  being 
a  division  of  opinion  between  the  judges,  Mr.  Arnold  took 
the  case  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States  in 
Washington.  The  case  came  on  in  January,  1843.  Mr. 
Arnold  presented  it  for  his  client  in  a  written  argument. 

In  view  of  the  great  importance  of  the  question  to 
be  decided,  Chief-Justice  Taney  expressed  his  regret  that 
an  oral  argument  was  not  had.     In  the  absence  of  such 


j6  ISAAC   N.   ARNOLD. 

oral  argument,  we  can  but  regret,  also,  that  the  written 
argument  was  not  set  out  in  the  report  of  the  case.  And 
in  this  connection,  Mr.  Arnold  himself  relates  a  pleasant 
incident  which  shows  the  generosity  of  his  client  and 
which  must  make  his  memory  respected  by  all  our  pro- 
fessional brethren.  Mr.  Arnold  sent  to  Mr.  Bronson  a 
modest  bill  for  $150  for  services,  which  was  immediately 
remitted,  together  with  a  check  for  $500  additional.  And 
that  was  not  all.  Mr.  Bronson  had  published  a  pamphlet 
copy  of  the  argument  of  Mr.  Arnold  and  also  of  the 
opinion  of  the  court,  and  bound  in  Levant  morocco,  with 
beautiful  ornamentation.  Mr.  Arnold's  copy  was  burned 
in  the  Chicago  fire,  and  it  is  not  probable  that  a  copy  of 
that  most  interesting  pamphlet  can  now  be  found  any- 
where. Mr.  Arnold  justly  acquired  much  reputation  for 
the  able  manner  in  which  he  had  presented  the  argument, 
for  it  was  understood  at  the  time  that  the  principal  points 
he  made  were  fully  sustained  by  the  court. 

The  opinion  of  Chief-Justice  Taney  was  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  elaborate  ever  delivered  by  that  illustrious 
jurist.  No  one  can  read  it  at  this  day  without  being  filled 
with  admiration  at  the  masterly  manner  in  which  he  treats 
the  great  constitutional  questions  involved,  and  demon- 
strating that  the  provision  of  the  Constitution,  that  no 
State  should  pass  any  law  impairing  the  obligation  of 
contracts,  was  something  more  than  a  "  barren  ideality."" 


ADDRESS   OF   HON.    E.    B.    WASHBURNE.  77 

He  swept  away  the  pretences  and  subterfuges  which  had 
been  advanced  in  order  to  obscure  the  true  meaning  of 
that  great  provision  in  our  national  charter,  which  has 
been  the  sheet  anchor  of  our  national  honor  and  public 
faith. 

There  has  not  been  a  more  just  appreciation  of  Mr. 
Arnold  than  that  of  George  W.  Lay,  Esq.,  now  a  citizen 
of  Batavia,  N.  Y.  Mr.  Lay  is  a  son  of  the  late  Hon.  Geo. 
W.  Lay  of  Western  New  York,  and  who  was  our  charge 
d'affaires  to  Sweden  and  Norway  from  .1842  to  1845. 
Admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  State  of  New  York,  Mr.  Lay 
came  to  Chicago  in  1847,  and  in  the  fall  of  that  year 
entered  into  a  law  partnership  with  Mr.  Arnold,  which 
was  continued  for  some  fifteen  years,  and  until  about  the 
year  1862.  Mr.  Lay  then  returned  to  his  former  residence 
in  Batavia.  He  was  well  known  to  most  of  the  old  law- 
yers of  Chicago,  a  man  of  excellent  standing  in  his  pro- 
fession, and  of  the  highest  character  for  probity  and 
honor.  From  his  long  and  intimate  association  with  Mr. 
Arnold,  no  one  was  better  able  to  speak  of  him  as  a 
lawyer  and  a  man. 

This  valuable  paper  has  been  placed  at  my  disposi- 
tion, and  I  am  enabled  to  quote  some  of  its  most  salient 
points.  After  giving  his  idea  of  what  a  lawyer  should  be, 
and  what  position  he  should  occupy  toward  his  clients 
and  the  court,  Mr.  Lay  says  "that  Mr.  Arnold  was  strictly 


78  ISAAC    N.   ARNOLD. 

conscientious    and    honorable    as    a    lawyer,    and     never 
lowered  the  standard  of  the  relation  of  lawyer  and  client. 
Many  times  he  had  known  of  his  canvassing  the  rights 
of  his  clients,  and  questioning  the  propriety  and  duty  of 
taking  up  a  certain  cause,  but  he  had  never  in  his  long 
experience   and   association   with   him    known   him   to   be 
aught  but  the  soul  of  honor.      He  had  no  tricks  nor  low 
standard    of    duty.      He   was    always    the    friend    of    the 
friendless,    and    kind    and    considerate   to   the   feelings   of 
others,   and    always    thoughtful    and    ready   to   assist    the 
struggling  lawyer  just  commencing.      To  all   the  profes- 
sion he  was  courteous,  polite,  and  gentlemanly,  with  due 
respect  to  the  court,  the  judge,  and  the  opposing  counsel, 
and  indulging  in  no  undignified  and  bitter  language,  and 
never  wrangling.     He  was  firm  in  his  advocacy  of  what 
he  deemed  his  duty  to  his  client  who  had  intrusted  his 
riehts  and  interests  to  his  care;  indeed,  a  model  for  the 
profession,  always  dignified  and  upholding  the  dignity  and 
importance  of  his  position  as  a  lawyer,  an  advocate,  and 
a  man.     In  conversation  he  was  affable,  instructive,  and 
high-toned,  and  never  given  to  low  badinage.     His  friends 
and  associates  were  selected  from  among  those  who  were 
seekers   after   intellectual    improvement   and  whose  ideas 
were  of  a  cultured  and  high  order. 

"To  some  he  appeared  haughty  and  distant,  but  this 
was   merely  the  reserve  incident   to   his   character.      To 


ADDRESS  OF   HON.   E.   B.   WASHBURNE.  79 

those  who  were  near  to  him  he  was  affable,  considerate, 
and  kind,  and  attached  them  to  him  with  hooks  of  steel. 

"As  a  lawyer,  he  was  careful  and  painstaking,  exam- 
ining and  studying  the  law  and  decisions  critically  before 
expressing  an  opinion  or  giving  advice,  which  was  gener- 
ally well  grounded,  owing  in  a  great  measure  to  that 
inherent  love  of  strict  justice  pervading  his  mind  and 
influencing  and  controlling  his  actions. 

"  His  great  forte,  however,  was  as  an  advocate  before 
a  jury,  and  in  the  examination  and  cross-examination  of 
witnesses.  The  cause  of  his  client  was  presented  with 
its  full  force,  carefully  prepared,  and  with  wonderful 
ability.  I  have  never  seen  or  heard  his  equal  in  the 
presentation  of  his  side  to  the  jury.  The  strong,  salient 
points  in  the  evidence  were  fully,  clearly  brought  out  and 
enforced  by  a  masterly  argument.  He  seemed  to  have 
complete  control  of  the  jury,  and  to  carry  them  with  him 
as  he  progressed.  He  was  truly  eloquent,  clear,  and  con- 
cise, no  useless  verbiage,  no  prolixity,  but  straightforward 
and  to  the  point,  pleading,  arguing,  convincing  with  stir- 
ring, breathing  words  full  of  expression,  thought,  reflec- 
tion, and  argument. 

"In  his  addresses  he  used  no  slang  expressions,  but 
choice,  pure  English,  strengthened  in  delivery  by  action 
and  gesture,  forcible  and  graceful,  and  with  a  clear,  ring- 
ing voice,  changing  and  varied  in  its  tone  as  demanded  by 


8o  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

the  subject,  the  occasion,  the  parties,  and  the  surround- 
ings. In  all  respects,  without  exception,  he  was  the 
ablest,  the  most  versatile,  and  most  powerful  advocate  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  listening  to  during  my  long  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Chicago  bar." 

Mr.  Lay  turns  aside  from  his  reminiscences  of  Mr. 
Arnold  to  speak  of  the  Chicago  bar  as  he  found  it  in 
1847,  of  the  iudges,  juries,  lawyers,  witnesses,  and  spec- 
tators. At  the  bar  there  was  an  array  of  legal  lore  and 
intellectual  worth  and  power.  He  passes  in  review  many 
names  well  known  in  the  legal  profession  in  this  State 
— Isaac  N.  Arnold,  Justin  Butterfield,  Giles  Spring,  J. 
Young  Scammon,  Grant  Goodrich,  Patrick  Ballingall, 
James  H.  Collins,  Norman  B.  Judd,  Buckner  S.  Morris — 
men  who  made  the  Chicago  bar  at  that  period  distinguished 
by  its  power,  its  eloquence,  and  its  legal  accumen,  almost 
without  an  equal  in  this  country.  "Upon  the  death  of 
Justin  Butterfield,  Mr.  Arnold  was  appointed  in  his  place 
as  attorney  and  counsellor  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the 
Illinois -and- Michigan  Canal,  and  had  charge  of  very 
important  litigation.  He  defended  many  cases  brought 
against  the  trustees  where  it  was  attempted  to  enforce 
preemptions  of  tracts  of  land  in  the  city  which  the  trus- 
tees had  subdivided  and  confined  and  restricted  the  right 
of  preemption  to  that  part  of  the  land  or  block  actually 
occupied  and  improved,  and  not  allowing  the  subdivision 
made  by  the  United  States  to  govern. 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.    WASHBURNE.  8 1 

"This  was  a  very  important  question  and  involving 
large  amounts.  It  was  carried  to  the  supreme  court  of 
the  State,  where  Mr.  Arnold  obtained  a  decision  in  favor 
of  the  trustees.  I  have  not  the  time  to  refer  to  the  many 
important  cases  which  Mr.  Arnold  tried  in  the  courts 
below  and  argued  in  the  supreme  court  of  the  State." 

Mr.  Arnold  did  not  confine  himself  entirely  to  the 
common-law  and  equity  practice,  but  was  frequently  em- 
ployed in  criminal  cases,  where  he  displayed  his  great 
intellectual  and  forensic  powers.  Mr.  Lay  says  that  he 
was  particularly  successful  in  cross-examination.  He 
seemed  to  read  the  feelings,  motives,  and  countenances 
of  the  witnesses.  In  this  our  honored  president,  Judge 
Davis,  has  also  borne  his  testimony  to  the  same  effect, 
for  in  a  recent  letter  to  me  he  said:  "Mr.  Arnold,  in  his 
time,  was  one  of  the  best  cross-examiners  in  this  country." 

I  can  not  do  better  than  to  quote  here  an  extract 
from  the  admirable  address  of  Judge  Van  H.  Higgins 
before  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  in  respect  of  Mr. 
Arnold  as  a  lawyer: 

"Mr.  Arnold  was  more  than  a  powerful  and  success- 
ful advocate  and  trial  lawyer.  He  was  a  learned  lawyer 
— a  jurist,  in  the  just  sense  of  that  term.  For  more  than 
thirty  years,  Mr.  Arnold  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Chicago 
bar.  As  a  nisi  prius  or  trial  lawyer  there  was  scarcely 
his  equal  in  the  State;  probably  it  can  truthfully  be  said 


82  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

that  he  was  one  of  the  most  successful,  ingenious,  and 
powerful  jury  lawyers  in  the  Western  country.  The 
records  of  the  various  courts,  state  and  federal,  show  Mr. 
Arnold  to  have  had  an  extensive  and  varied  practice. 
Few  lawyers  in  this  or  any  other  city  have  had  a  greater 
number  of  cases  before  the  courts  than  Mr.  Arnold,  and 
these  cases  were  generally  of  great  importance  and  in- 
volved the  most  varied  learning,  and  called  for  the  appli- 
cation of  the  most  intricate  and  abstruse  questions  of  law. 
-:*  -:<-  *  * 

"  There  is  no  one  of  the  older  members  of  the 
Chicago  bar  but  will  accord  to  Mr.  Arnold  the  credit 
of  having  been  one  of  the  best  trial  lawyers  that  ever 
belonged  to  the  Chicago  bar.  Mr.  Arnold  attained  in 
life  and  in  his  profession  all  that  an  honorable  and  well- 
ordered  ambition  could  hope  for.  He  attained  great  emi- 
nence and  distinction  in  his  profession  and  as  a  citizen." 

Before  entering  Congress,  in  1861,  the  political  life 
of  Mr.  Arnold  was  measured  by  three  terms  as  a  member 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  State  Legislature 
from  Cook  County.  He  was  elected  as  one  of  the  two 
members  of  the  House  from  Cook  County  in  1842.  His 
colleague  was  Gen.  Hart  L.  Stewart.  It  then  took  five 
counties,  Cook,  Will,  DuPage,  Lake,  and  McHenry,  to 
send  John  Pearson  to  the  State  Senate.  There  were 
many  men  of  distinction  in  the  House  at  that  time,  and 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.   B.    WASHBURNE.  83 

some  of  whom  have  acquired  a  national  reputation. 
Samuel  Hackelton  of  Fulton  County  was  the  speaker. 
He  had  been  previously  a  register  of  the  United  States 
land-office  at  Galena,  a  native  of  Maine,  and  of  an  adjoin- 
ing town  to  the  one  in  which  I  was  born  and  raised. 
Gen.  Win.  L.  D.  Ewing  was  the  clerk.  He  had  been 
for  fifteen  days  governor  of  the  State  in  1834,  and  sub- 
sequently a  senator  of  the  United  States  for  two  years — 
a  gentleman  whose  courtly  manners  and  genial  deport- 
ment will  never  be  forgotten  by  any  one  who  had  ever 
known  him.  Robert  Smith  was  enrolling  clerk,  a  young 
man  recently  from  New  Hampshire,  who  afterward  served 
for  ten  years  as  a  member  of  Congress,  with  great  credit 
and  usefulness;  a  man  whose  popular  and  captivating 
manners  everywhere  made  him  hosts  of  friends. 

Then  there  was  Gustavus  Koerner  of  St.  Clair,  the 
best  type  of  the  German-American,  the  accomplished 
scholar  and  lawyer,  subsequently  judge  of  the  supreme 
court,  lieutenant-governor,  and  minister  to  Spain;  Maj. 
Andrew  J.  Kuykendall,  who,  serving  in  the  war  of  the 
rebellion,  was  elected  to  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  from 
the  Cairo  district;  Stephen  T.  Logan,  the  great  lawyer, 
and  as  a  nisi  pr ins  judge  who  never  had  an  equal  in  the 
State;  Orville  H.  Browning,  the  distinguished  lawyer  and 
advocate,  senator  in  Congress,  and  secretary  of  the  Inte- 
rior, and  once  the  honored  president  of  our  bar  associa- 


84  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

tion;  John  A.  McClernand,  for  ten  years  a  member  of 
Congress,  who  added  to  his  reputation  as  a  statesman  a 
distinguished  and  honorable  service  as  a  soldier,  subse- 
quently a  judge,  and  now  at  the  bar.  Orlando  B.  Ficklin 
was  a  member  of  this  House,  as  he  had  been  of  the 
Houses  of  1836  and  1838.  Subsequently  he  served  four 
terms  in  Congress,  and  is  still  at  the  bar,  but  his  love  of 
the  early  history  of  our  beloved  State  leads  him  in  his- 
toric paths;  the  brilliant  lawyer,  Julius  Manning  of  Knox; 
Alexander  Stearne,  subsequently  secretary  of  state;  the 
modest  and  unassuming  Pierre  Menard  of  Tazewell,  the 
son  of  that  grand  old  Frenchman,  Pierre  Menard,  our 
first  lieutenant-governor;  the  thorough  and  warm-hearted 
Englishman,  Gen.  William  Pickering,  the  worthy  repre- 
sentative of  the  English  settlement  in  Edwards  County; 
David  L.  Gregg,  once  secretary  of  state,  and  subsequently 
commissioner  to  the  Sandwich  Islands;  Newton  Cloud,  so 
well  known  in  our  State  history;  Richard  Yates,  governor 
and  United  States  senator ;  and  I  must  not  forget  to 
mention  that  bluff  old  sailor,  Capt.  Curtis  Blakeman  of 
Madison  County,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  the  "Marine 
Settlement"  in  that  county,  a  spot  which  Judge  Joseph 
Gillespie  declared  had  no  equal  for  beauty  of  scenery  and 
fertility  of  soil.  He  commanded  the  ship  which  took 
Gen.  Moreau  to  Europe,  when  he  left  the  United  States 
to  join  the  allied  armies  of  Europe  against  Napoleon  in 
1813- 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.   WASHBURNE.  85 

In  1844,  Mr.  Arnold  was  again  elected  to  the  House 
from  Cook  County,  having  again  for  his  colleague  Gen. 
Hart  L.  Stewart.  Norman  B.  Judd  was  elected  senator 
from  Cook  and  Lake  counties.  William  A.  Richardson 
was  the  speaker.  He  was  subsequently  elected  to  Con- 
gress for  four  terms,  then  was  appointed  governor  of 
Nebraska,  and  elected  United  States  senator  in  1863  to 
succeed  Judge  Douglas.  In  the  house  at  this  session 
there  were  Cyrus  Aldrich  of  Jo  Davies  County,  and  after- 
ward member  of  Congress  from  Minnesota ;  Almon  W. 
Babbitt,  Mormon,  and  Jake  Backentos,  Jack  Mormon, 
both  from  Hancock  County;  David  Davis,  afterward  a 
distinguished  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of.  the  United 
States,  and  then  serving  the  State  and  country  with 
ability  and  usefulness  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
Returning  among  us,  after  having  worn  so  many  honors, 
he  shows  his  regard  for  our  noble  profession  by  accepting 
the  position  of  president  of  our  bar  association.  John  D. 
Whiteside,  ex-State  treasurer,  Major  Kuykendall,  Judge 
Logan,  Julius  Manning,  Alexander  Stearne,  and  Richard 
Yates  were  also  again  members  of  this  House,  as  well  as 
Newton  D.  Strong  of  Madison  County,  one  of  the  ablest 
lawyers  in  the  State  in  his  time,  and  brother  of  Judge 
Strong,  late  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States. 

After  closing  his  service  in  the  Legislature,  in  1846, 
Mr.  Arnold  did  not  enter  public  life  again  till  1856.  In 
7 


S6  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

politics  he  had  always  been  a  Democrat  of  the  strictest 
sect,  and  in  1844  he  was  a  presidential  elector  on  the  Polk 
ticket.  Indignant  at  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compro- 
mise, he  became  an  anti-Nebraska  Democrat,  and  in  1856, 
upon  the  urgent  insistance  of  the  Republicans  and  anti- 
Nebraska  Democrats  of  Cook  County,  he  consented  again 
to  become  a  candidate  for  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  the  Legislature,  and  was  elected.  This  was  an  exciting 
session  of  the  Legislature.  The  Democrats  were  in  the 
majority  in  the  House,  and  Samuel  Holmes  of  Adams 
County  was  elected  speaker.  Col.  Wm.  H.  Bissell  had 
been  elected  governor  in  November,  and  for  whom  Mr. 
Arnold  had  voted.  There  were  not  many  of  the  old 
wheel-horses  of  either  party  in  the  House  at  this  session, 
but  if  you  will  look  over  the  list  of  members  you  will 
find  that  eight  of  them  subsequently  were  elected  to 
Congress, — Ebon  C.  Ingersoll,  John  A.  Logan,  Morrison, 
Sparks,  Moulton,  Cullom,  Lathrop,  and  Arnold.  It  being 
alleged  that  Bissell  had  accepted  a  challenge  from  Jeff 
Davis  to  fight  a  duel  at  Washington,  his  right  to  take  the 
oath  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  was,  in  the  heat  of 
party  feeling,  vehemently  challenged. 

Mr.  Arnold  became  the  champion  of  the  governor, 
and,  in  a  legal  argument  of  great  force  and  power,  demon- 
strated that  the  governor  had  not  brought  himself  within 
the   meaning   of  the   constitutional    provision,    and   could 


ADDRESS   OF    WW*    V..    V,.    WASHBURNE.  87 

properl)'  take  the  oath,  and  that  it  was  his  duty  to  take 
it.  This  speech  of  Mr.  Arnold  settled  the  question,  and 
gave  to  him  a  high  reputation  over  the  whole  State,  mark- 
ing him  as  one  of  the  ablest  of  our  public  men  at  the 
time.  Bisscll  had  already  been  stricken  down  by  a  par- 
tial paralysis,  and  was  unable  to  go  to  the  State  House 
to  have  the  oath  of  office  administered  to  him,  and  so  the 
Legislature  went  to  the  Governor's  mansion  to  receive  his 
oath.  A  great  invalid  during  his  term  of  service,  he  died 
before  it  was  ended.  On  March  16,  1S60,  his  brave  and 
noble  heart  ceased  to  beat,  and  the  State  mourned  the 
loss  of  one  of  its  bravest,  ablest,  purest,  and  most  devoted 
sons. 

If  I  could  be  pardoned  a  digression,  I  would  attempt 
to  make  known  to  the  present  generation,  so  forgetful  of 
our  history,  and  often  so  frivolous,  something  of  the  real 
character  of  the  founders  of  our  commonwealth,  to  render 
homage  to  the  honesty,  the  firmness,  and  the  fidelity 
which  belonged  to  their  characters;  but  the  attraction  of 
pleasures,  the  greed  for  gold,  and  the  ambition  for  place 
have  usurped  the  thirst  for  justice,  contemned  the  spirit 
of  sacrifice,  and  belittled  the  austerity  of  duty. 

No  loyal  son  of  Illinois  can  pass  in  review  the  eariier 
of  our  public  servants  without  a  feeling  of  admiration  and 
gratitude.  I  can  not  go  over  the  whole  list  of  our  public 
men,  but  must  limit  myself  to  a  few  of  the  more  promi- 


88  ISAAC   N.    ARNOLD. 

nent,  whose  lives,  services,  and  character  illustrate  our 
earlier  history.  We  call  to  mind  our  first  governor,  the 
plain  and  honest  Shadrach  Bond,  and  we  pause  in  rever- 
ence before  the  comely  figure  of  our  second  governor, 
Edward  Coles,  a  man  who  rendered  a  service  to  the  State 
which  can  never  be  forgotten  so  long  as  a  love  of  free- 
dom shall  find  a  lodgment  in  the  hearts  of  men.  Ninian 
Edwards,  our  third  governor,  whose  talent,  integrity,  and 
commanding  presence  carried  the  people  back  to  the 
memories  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic.  But  of  the 
late  governors,  there  was  a  man  elected  after  I  came  to 
the  State  whom  I  can  not  refrain  from  mentioning, 
Thomas  Ford,  a  man  of  the  most  aggressive  honesty 
and  of  Roman  incorruptibility;  disdaining  the  clamors  of 
pestiferous  demagogues,  he  stamped  out  with  a  giant 
tread  the  heresy  of  repudiation.  He  served  the  State 
with  fidelity  and  courage,  and  he  laid  down  his  robes  of 
office  with  honor  untarnished,  though  in  extreme  but 
honorable  poverty,  a  poverty  of  more  value  to  his  name 
and  to  the  State  he  served  than  all  the  wealth  of  "Ormus 
and  of  Ind." 

And  we  will  never  pass  over  the  name  of  our  first 
lieutenant-governor,  that  honest  and  unpretending  Cana- 
dian Frenchman,  Pierre  Menard,  whose  name  was  the 
synonym  of  patriotism,  honor,  fair  dealing,  and  benevo- 
lence.    A  distinguished  citizen  of  St.  Louis,  allied  to  him 


ADDRESS   OF    HON.    E.    B.    WASHBURNE.  89 

by  ties  of  family,  holding  him  in  the  highest  reverence 
for  all  the  virtues  which  adorned  his  public  and  private 
character,  has  already  undertaken  the  erection  of  a  monu- 
ment to  his  memory  to  be  placed  in  our  State- House 
grounds.  I  refer  to  Charles  Pierre  Chouteau,  in  whom 
survives  those  great  traits  of  character  that  made  his 
family  so  illustrious  for  half  a  century,  not  only  in  our 
neighboring-  State  of  Missouri,  but  in  the  whole   North- 


west. 


*  *  * 


CHICAGO   LITERARY  CLUB. 


MEMORIAL. 

REPORTED    by   Walter    C.    Larned,   for   the    Com- 
mittee, and    adopted   at   a   meeting   held    Monday 
evening,  May   12,  1884: 

Since  our  friend  and  associate,  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  has 
been  taken  from  among  us  by  death,  we,  the  members  of 
the  Chicago  Literary  Club,  desire  to  express  our  sorrow 
for  his  loss,  and  our  earnest  appreciation  of  his  worth. 
We  think  also  that  the  expression  of  our  high  regard 
for  him  will  serve  as  the  best  utterance  of  the  hearty 
sympathy  which  we  feel  for  his  bereaved  family. 

This  Club  is  proud  to  have  numbered  among  its 
members  a  man  wliose  private  character  has  been  so 
blameless,  and  whose  public  services  have  been  so  note- 
worthy. We  wish  to  pay  our  tribute  of  admiration  to 
Mr.  Arnold  as  a  lawyer,  as  a  statesman,  and  as  a  writer. 
Few  men  at  the  bar  of  Chicago  could  equal  his  persuasive 
eloquence  before  a  jury,  or  better  sift  the  evidence  in  com- 
plicated cases.  As  a  statesmen,  he  came  to  his  country's 
help  in  a  time  of  trying  need,  and  his  services  in  the 
cause  of  liberty  for  the  oppressed  will  do  him  immortal 
honor.     His  biographical  works  are  in  every  library,  and 

90 


CHICAGO    LITERARY    i  LI   B.  91 

his  name  is  thus  associated  in  history  with  that  of  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  .  W'c  also  greatly  honor  him  for  the  perfect 
purity  and  integrity  of  his  character,  which  he  kept  with- 
out stain  in  all  the  varied  circumstances  of  his  life,  and 
we  lament  the  loss  in  him  of  a  friend  whose  gentle  dig- 
nit}"  of  manner  and  kindliness  of  spirit  endeared  him  to 
us  all. 

We  can  not  but  feel  that  the  grief  of  those  who 
loved  him  best  will  in  time  be  softened  and  made  less 
bitter  by  the  thought  that  he  has  done  no  evil  to  live 
after  him,  but  only  good  deeds,  which  can  not  pass  away 
with  his  body,  but  will  remain  to  his  enduring  honor. 


LINCOLN-PARK   COMMISSIONERS. 


THE  following  resolution  of  respect  to»the  memory 
of   Comr.  Arnold   was   adopted    by   the   Commis- 
sioners of  Lincoln  Park,  May   13,  1884: 

IN   MEMORIAM. 

The  death  of  our  late  associate,  the  Hon.  Isaac  N\ 
Arnold,  an  honored  and  useful  member  of  this  Board  for 
the  last  four  years,  calls  for  an  expression  of  the  feeling 
of  profound  regret  with  which  we  deplore  his  loss.  Mr. 
Arnold  was  a  man  who  stood  so  high  in  this  community 
in  all  the  relations  of  life,  that  while  no  word  of  eulogy 
would  seem  inappropriate  when  applied  to  his  character,, 
none  is  needed  to  establish  or  embellish  it. 

The  Board  of  Commissioners  of  Lincoln  Park  desire 
however  to  place  upon  record  our  high  appreciation  of  the 
citizen  and  the  man.  His  great  fidelity  to  the  interests  of 
the  Park,  his  devotion  to  the  development  of  its  natural 
beauties,  his  aesthetic  taste  so  cultivated  and  refined,  and 
above  all,  his  courteous  and  gentlemanly  bearing  in  all  the 
meetings  of  the  Board,  and  in  all  his  intercourse  with  his 
associates,  endeared  him  to  each  and  all  of  us,  and  will 
cause  us  to  cherish  his  memory  with  profound  and  lasting 
affection ;  and  the  Secretary  is  ordered  to  enter  this  minute 
upon  the  records  and  to  send  a  certified  copy  to  the  afflicted 

family  of  our  late  associate.       F.  H.  Winston,  President. 

E.  S.  Taylor,  Secretary. 
92 


UNION   CATHOLIC   LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION. 


\    T  a  meeting  of  the  board  of  managers  of  the  Lmion 
x  jl      Catholic  Library  Association,  held  at  the  library 

rooms,  April  26,  1884,  the  following  resolutions  were  intro- 
duced by  Mr.  Edward  T.  Cahill,  and  unanimously  adopted: 

The  Union  Catholic  Library  Association,  desiring  to 
join  with  the  common  sympathy  and  condolence  expressed 
by  the  citizens  of  Chicago,  irrespective  of  race,  creed,  and 
condition,  in  their  bereavement  for  the  late  and  highly- 
esteemed  citizen,  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  give  expression  to  the 
following: 

That  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Arnold  we  had  a  man  who 
possessed  in  no  small  degree  the  true  qualities  of  a  Chris- 
tian gentleman — amiability,  benevolence,  and  charity.  His 
mind  was  of  such  breadth  of  comprehension,  so  deep  and 
penetrating  in  its  grasp,  that  in  all  the  walks  of  life  which 
he  was  called  on  to  tread,  he  was  eyer  to  be  found  in  the 
path  of  virtue,  truth,  and  justice.  His  kind  and  sympa- 
thetic nature  shone  so  beautiful  in  his  defence  of  the  un- 
fortunate and  lowly,  especially  so  in  the  case  of  the  slave. 
His  zeal  and  devotion  to  his  cause  made  him  and  his  illus- 
trious co-laborer,  Abraham  Lincoln,  benefactors  of  a  whole 
race  of  people. 

93 


94  ISAAC   N.   ARNOLD. 

His  kindness  toward  our  church  and  its  communicants 
was  shown  on  numerous  occasions  in  his  public  life.  His 
charity"  often  brought  thanks  and  prayers  from  those  who 
can  not  in  public  give  expression  to  their  feeling  of  appre- 
ciation. Our  association  is  indebted  to  him  for  his  interest 
shown  it,  he  having  favored  us  with  lectures  and  essays, 
and  joined  us  in  honoring  Mgr.  Capel  on  the  occasion  of 
his  visit  here. 

In  his  character  are  to  be  found  those  qualities  which 
today  are  deemed  of  but  too  little  importance — that  no 
educated  man  can  conscientiously  be  a  Christian.  His 
plea  for  immortality,  delivered  before  the  Philosophical 
Society  of  this  city,  will  warrant  the  assertion  that  Chris- 
tianity does  not  tend  to  debase  or  lower  the  intellectual 
qualities,  but  to  strengthen,  beautify,  and  enlarge  them, 
and  that  the  future  of  our  republic  can  not  subsist  without 
it.     Therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Isaac  N.  Arnold  we, 
in  common  with  our  fellow-citizens,  extend  to  his  bereaved 
family  our  sincere  and  heart-felt  sympathy  in  the  loss  of 
so  kind  and  affectionate  a  protector,  and  deplore  the  loss 
to  the  State  of  a  citizen  of  such  worth,  literature  of  so  able 
an  exponent,  and  the  nation  of  such  a  benefactor. 


LETTER   OF  GEO.  W.  LAY. 


Batavia,  N.Y.,  Dec.  20,  1884. 

MY  Dear  Miss  Arnold: 
I  shall   try  and   write  as   full)-  as  I   can  what   I 
know  of  your  father  as  a  lawyer,  with  reference  also  to 
some  of  the  cases  of  importance  which  I  can  now  recall. 

I  came  to  Chicago  in  June,  1847,  seeking  for  a  place 
to  practice  law,  and  went  into  the  office  of  Arnold  & 
Ogden,  then  in  the  old  Saloon  Building  (so  called),  to 
learn  the  course  of  procedure  in  the  State  of  Illinois, 
having  already  been  admitted  in  the  courts  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  In  the  fall,  I  became  a  partner  with  your 
father,  under  the  firm  name  of  Arnold  &  Lay,  and 
remained  in  partnership  until  about  the  year  1862,  when 
I  removed  to  Batavia,  N.  Y. 

My  idea  or  ideal  of  a  lawyer  would  not,  in  these 
clays  of  feverish  excitement,  be  considered  correct.  To 
my  mind,  a  lawyer  should  be  on  the  side  of  right,  always 
searching  for  truth  and  justice,  and  should  never  under- 
take a  cause  unless  satisfied  in  his  own  mind  of  its  merits. 
He  should  never  descend  to  the  low  arts  of  cunning  or 
chicanery  to  obtain  success.  He  should  be  above  re- 
proach,  a   friend   as   well   as   counsellor   of   the   court,    so 

95 


96  ISAAC   N.   ARNOLD. 

that  even-handed  justice  should  be  meted  out.  The 
popular  delusion  as  to  the  position  and  duty  of  a  lawyer 
is  that  he  should  descend  to  low  tricks,  mean  subterfuges, 
all  representations  false  or  specious,  so  that  he  accom- 
plishes or  obtains  success  —  no  matter  how.  So  that  to 
win  a  cause,  a  lawyer  must  sacrifice  honor,  honesty,  man- 
liness, and  all  the  nobler  attributes  of  true  manhood,  such 
as  truth,  free  will,  and  regardless  of  self,  act  wholly  for 
his  client. 

I  say  it  with  pride,  your  father  was  strictly  conscien- 
tious and  honorable  as  a  lawyer,  and  never  lowered  his 
standard  of  the  relation  of  lawyer  and  client.  Many 
times  have  I  known  of  his  canvassing  the  rights  of  his 
clients,  and  questioning  the  propriety  and  duty  of  taking 
up  a  certain  cause;  but  never  in  my  long  experience  and 
association  with  him  have  I  known  him  to  be  aught  but 
the  soul  of  honor,  never  lowering  himself  to  this  common 
and  low  idea,  so  prevalent  and  popular,  of  the  relation  of 
lawyer  and  client.  No  tricks  or  trickeries  for  him,  no  low 
standard  of  his  duty,  but  a  firm  resolve  always  to  act 
well  his  part.  Possessing  and  holding  such  an  elevated 
idea  of  his  duty,  he  was  always  the  friend  of  the  friend- 
less, kind  and  considerate  of  the  feelings  of  others,  always 
thoughtful  and  ready  to  assist  the  young  and  struggling 
lawyer  just  commencing. 

I  often  think  with  what  kindness  and   consideration 


LETTER   OF   GEO.    W.    LAY.  97 

he  overlooked  the  many  mistakes  I  made,  so  common  to 
the  young  in  the  profession,  and  how  like  a  father  he 
encouraged  me,  rendering  me  such  valuable  counsel  and 
assistance,  so  much  so  that  words  are  unable  to  express 
my  debt  of  gratitude  to  him.  Not  to  me  alone,  but  to 
all  the  profession  was  he  courteous,  polite,  gentlemanly; 
with  due  respect  for  the  court,  the  judge,  the  opposing 
counsel;  indulging  in  no  undignified  and  bitter  attacks 
upon  the  opposing  counsel  or  the  court,  and  in  no  wran- 
gling, and  yet  withal  firm  in  his  advocacy  of  what  he 
deemed  his  duty  as  an  attorney  or  lawyer  to  his  client, 
who  had  intrusted  his  rights  and  interests  to  his  care. 
He  was  truly  an  example  of  an  honorable  lawyer  and 
advocate,  impassioned  and  zealous,  a  Chevalier  Bayard, 
without  fear  and  without  reproach.  A  model  for  the  pro- 
fession, always  dignified,  never  low,  but  full  of  the  dignity 
and  importance  of  his  position  as  a  lawyer,  an  advocate, 
and  a  man.  In  conversation,  affable,  instructive,  high 
toned;  no  low,  common  badinage  for  him.  His  friends 
and  associates  were  selected  among  those  who  were 
seekers  after  intellectual  improvement  and  whose  ideas 
were  of  a  cultured  and  high  order. 

To  some  he  appeared  haughty  and  distant,  but  this 
was  merely  the  reserve  incident  to  his  character ;  and 
with  those  who  were  near  to  him  he  was  always  affable, 
considerate,  kind,  and  attracted  them  to  him  with  hooks 


98  ISAAC    N.    ARNOIJ). 

of  steel.  To  know  him  was  to  love  him.  In  all  the 
years  of  our  intimate  relationship,  I  never  had  any  other 
feeling  toward  him  than  one  of  respect,  of  love,  and  never 
had  occasion  to  feel  in  any  way  offended  by  his  manner 
toward  me. 

As  a  counsel  he  was  careful  and  painstaking,  examin- 
ing and  studying  the  law  and  decisions  carefully  before 
expressing  his  opinion  or  giving  advice,  which  was  gener- 
ally accurate  and  well  grounded,  owing  in  a  great  measure 
to  that  inherent  love  of  strict  justice  and  right  pervading 
his  mind  and  influencing  and  controlling  his  actions. 

His  great  forte,  however,  was  as  an  advocate  before  a 
jury,  and  in  the  examination  and  cross-examination  of 
witnesses.  The  cause  of  his  client  was  presented  with  its 
full  force,  carefully  prepared,  and  with  wonderful  ability. 
I  have  never  seen  or  heard  his  equal  in  this  presentation 
of  his  side  to  the  jury.  The  strong,  salient  points  in  the 
evidence  were  fully,  clearly  brought  out,  and  enforced  by 
a  masterly  argument.  He  seemed  to  have  complete  con- 
trol of  the  jury,  and  to  carry  them  with  him  as  he  pro- 
gressed. He  was  truly  eloquent,  clear,  and  concise;  no 
useless  verbiage,  no  prolixity,  but  straight  forward  to  the 
point,  pleading,  arguing,  convincing  with  stirring,  breath- 
ing words,  full  of  expression,  thought,  reflection,  and 
argument.  In  his  addresses  he  used  no  slang  expres- 
sions, but  choice,  pure  English,  strengthened  in  delivery 


LETTER   OF   GEO.   W.    LAV.  99 

by  action  and  gesture,  forcible  and  graceful,  and  with  a 
clear,  ringing  voice,  changing  and  varied  in  its  tone  as 
demanded  by  the  subject,  the  occasion,  the  parties,  and 
the  surroundings.  In  all  respects,  without  exception,  the 
ablest,  most  versatile,  and  most  powerful  advocate  I  had 
the  pleasure  of  listening  to  during  my  long  acquaintance 
with  the  bar  of  Chicago. 

My  first  recollection  of  the  bar  of  Chicago,  with  its 
plain  surroundings,  the  absence  of  all  form  and  ceremony, 
the  huddling  together  of  judge,  jury,  lawyers,  witnesses, 
and  spectators,  that  there  should  be  such  an  array  of  legal 
lore  and  intellectual  worth  and  power  surprised  me.  Plain 
and  sometimes  rough  in  their  appearance,  dress,  and  man- 
ners, yet  their  intellect,  their  abilities  forensic  and  argumen- 
tative, were  to  me,  coming  from  the  comparatively  stately 
grandeur  of  the  New- York  courts,  somewhat  surprising. 

Justin  Butterfield,  who  excelled  as  counsel  and  in 
equity;  Giles  Spring,  whose  quick  legal  mind  seized  upon 
the  right,  upon  the  law  with  almost  intuition ;  Grant 
Goodrich,  whose  industry  and  research,  as  well  as  his 
address  in  court,  rendered  him  a  formidable  antagonist; 
Hugh  T.  Dickey,  then  presiding  judge,  whose  boyish 
appearance  and  face  were  in  wonderful  contrast  to  his 
clear,  quick,  legal  mind,  commanding  respect  and  atten- 
tion from  the  older  members  of  the  bar;  Patrick  Ballin- 
gall,  the  active,  energetic,  and  shrewd  prosecuting  attor- 


IOO  ISAAC    N.    ARNOLD. 

ney;  J.  Young  Scammon,  the  able  counsellor,  owner  of 
the  best  legal  library  in  the  city,  whose  earnestness  and 
zeal  as  an  advocate  whenever  he  entered  the  arena  caused 
him  to  be  feared;  Norman  B.  Judd,  able  and  popular  as 
an  advocate;  Jas.  H.  Collins,  the  indefatigable,  unwearied 
advocate,  whose  forensic  efforts  were  always  listened  to 
and  highly  appreciated,  as  he  threw  his  whole  soul  and 
heart  in  his  cause;  Buckner  S.  Morris,  the  genial,  happy 
Kentuckian,  whose  stories  and  startling  addresses  to  the 
jury  were  so  taking,  so  rich  in  fun,  and  ofttimes  wonder- 
fully successful;  and  many  others  combined  to  impress 
me  most  favorably.  I  doubt  whether,  at  this  day,  there 
is  any  bar  more  distinguished  in  its  power,  its  eloquence, 
and  its  legal  acumen.  Before  it  came  many  important 
questions  as  to  title,  jurisdiction,  ways,  and  water-courses, 
and  constitutional  questions  involving  deep  research  and 
subtle  argument.  Having  but  few  precedents  and  author- 
ities to  rest  upon,  they  were  compelled  to  think,  reflect, 
and  reason,  with  rude  arguments  and  plain  statements, 
striving  to  attain  justice  and  right.  I  wondered  then 
and  wonder  now  at  the  intellectual  force  and  energy  then 
exhibited. 

You  ask  me  for  briefs  that  your  father  prepared.  I 
have  none,  as  all  the  office  papers  were  burned  in  the 
great  fire  that  destroyed  so  much  of  value.  In  two  pam- 
phlets sent  me  by  your  father,  which  you  probably  have, 


LETTER    OE    CEO.    \Y.    LAV.  lOI 

one  entitled:  "Reminiscences  of  the  Illinois  Bar  Forty 
Years  Ago;  Lincoln  and  Douglas  as  Orators  and  Law- 
yers. By  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold.  Read  before  the  Bar 
Association  at  Springfield,  111.,  Jan.  7,  1881;"  as  also: 
"  Recollections  of  the  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois  Bar. 
By  Hon.  Isaac  N.  Arnold.  Delivered  before  the  Chicago 
Bar,  June  10,  1880,'"  you  will  find  numerous  cases  alluded 
to  from  which  one  can  derive  much  information  as  to  the 
important  causes  in  which  he  was  engaged. 

The  first  important  case  was  that  of  Arthur  Bronson 
v.  John  H.  Kinzie,  argued  in  U.  S.  superior  court  in  Janu- 
ary, 1843;  referred  to  by  your  father  in  his  pamphlet  on 
page  17.  Also  another  involving  similar  questions  in  3 
Howard,  both  important  cases,  and  in  which  he  was 
eminently  successful.  After  my  partnership,  the  case  of 
Plumleigh  v.  Dawson,  for  diversion  of  a  water-course,  tried 
before  Judge  Drummond,  in  which  he  obtained  a  large 
verdict.  Connected  with  this  were  several  suits  between 
same  parties,  one  for  escape,  Plumleigh  v.  Cook,  sheriff  of 
Cook  County,  decided  in  Illinois  superior  court  in  his 
favor.  Soon  after  our  partnership,  your  father,  upon  the 
death  of  Justin  Butterfield,  was  appointed  attorney  and 
counsel  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  Illinois-and-Michi- 
gan  Canal,  and  made  the  argument  and  defence  of  several 
cases:  Brainard  v.  Trustees,  Granger  v.  Trustees,  Lafiin  or 
Loomis  v.  Trustees,  etc.,  when  it  was  attempted  to  enforce 


102  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

preemption  of  tracts  of  land  in  the  city  which  the  trustees 
had   subdivided   and   confined   and   restricted   the   right  of 
preemption   to  that  part  of  land  or  block  actually  occu- 
pied   and    improved,    and    not    allowing    the    subdivisions 
made  by  the  United   States  to  govern.     This  was  a  very 
important  question,  involving  as  it  did  thousands  of  dol- 
lars, and  was  carried  to  the  supreme  court  and  there  after 
long  and  able  arguments  on  both  sides,  finally  decided   in 
favor  of  the   trustees.      Also   a   leading   case   decided    in 
supreme  court   by  Judge  Trumbull,   I    think,  was  one  of 
Case  v.  Hartford   Insurance  Company,  wherein  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  liability  of  an  insurance  company  for  losses 
by  theft  at  a  fire  was  decided   in  favor  of  their  liability 
under  their  then  form  of  policy.      Immediately  after  this, 
the    insurance    companies    inserted    a    clause    exempting 
specially  losses  by  theft  at  fires.     I   can   not  recall    now 
the  many,  many  important  causes  in  which  he  was  acting 
as  attorney  or  counsel,  but  there  are  numerous  causes  in 
the   supreme  court  decisions    of    Illinois   wherein   he   was 
interested,  involving  many  varied  and  important  questions 
of   law.      As   I   have  no  books  or  papers  to   refer  to,   to 
refresh  my  memory,  I  can  not  quote  them  as  I  could  wish. 
Judge    Drummond    could    undoubtedly    recall    many 
important   cases   that   came   before   him,    and   could    give 
a  clear,  succinct  idea  of  the  legal  questions  discussed   in 
which    Mr.   Arnold    was   employed   and    interested.      The 


LETTER   OE   GEO.    W.    LAY.  103 

case  of  Johnston  v.  Jones,  wherein  the  question  of  accre- 
tion on  the  lake  shore  was  involved,  and  to  which  your 
father  refers  in  one  of  the  pamphlets,  was  important  in 
value  involved  as  well  as  legal  questions.  But  he  did  not 
confine  himself  entirely  to  the  common  law  and  equity, 
but  at  times  was  employed  and  acted  as  attorney  in 
criminal  causes,  to  which  he  bent  all  his  energies,  intel- 
lectual and  forensic,  with  unvarying  zeal  and  fervor.  In 
the  "Recollections  of  the  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois  Bar," 
several  important  criminal  causes  are  there  enumerated  by 
your  father  in  his  descriptive  way,  giving  a  true  insight  of 
his  keenness  as  a  lawyer,  his  powers  of  cross-examination, 
as  also  information  as  to  the  important  causes  in  which 
he  was  employed. 

In  cross-examination  he  seemed  to  read  the  feelings, 
motives,  and  countenances  of  witnesses,  and  to  impress 
the  jury  with  his  views.  I  know  of  several  important 
causes  wherein  he  defended  persons  indicted  for  crimes, 
but  can  not  of  course  give  any  idea  of  the  questions 
involved,  of  his  argument,  or  brief,  as  I  never  attended 
criminal  trials;  but  this  much  I  know,  that  he  was  gener- 
ally successful.  I  think  I  have  gone  over  pretty  much 
what  you  requested  me  to  write  about. 

There  are  many  lawyers  still  living  who  could  un- 
doubtedly give  interesting  details  of  the  causes  in  which 
he  was  engaged,  his  arguments,  and  possibly  his   briefs; 


104  ISAAC    X.    ARNOLD. 

such  as  Judge  Drummond,  Grant  Goodrich,  Judge  Trum- 
bull, J.  Young  Scammon,  Ezra  B.  McCagg,  Harvey  B. 
Hurd,  Paul  Cornell,  and  others. 

To  summarize,  your  father  being  always  scrupulously 
neat  in  his  dress  and  personal  appearance,  with  a  highly- 
intellectual  and  attractive  countenance,  with  a  voice  well 
modulated  and  variable,  with  a  delivery  free  and  easy,  and 
with  impressive  action  emphasizing  language,  with  pure, 
fervent  expression,  with  words  and  language  choice,  refined, 
and  striking,  thus  possessing  all  the  attributes  and  requis- 
ites of  a  finished  orator,  no  wonder  he  was  powerful  and 
convincing  in  his  addresses  to  juries,  no  wonder  that  he 
interested  court  and  audience,  and  that  wonderful  success 
attended  his  efforts. 

And  still  further,  I  look  upon  your  father  as  one  of 
those  rare  examples  of  a  lawyer  whose  daily  life  and 
daily  conversation  was  that  of  a  thorough  christian  gen- 
tleman. He  was  proud  of  and  gloried  in  his  profession, 
and  aimed  always  to  secure  justice  between  man  and  man. 
He  studied  hard  and  desired  always  to  attain  the  highest 
mark  in  the  calling  which  he  had  selected  and  which  he 
so  honored.     In  fact,  his  motto  was  "Excelsior". 

Yours  truly,  Geo.  W.  Law 


Ertbur  flfcason  Hrnolb- 

MEMORIAL. 

\R T  H  V  R  M  A  S  ON  A  R  N  O  L  D  was  born  in  Chi- 
cago, May  13,  1858,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death 
was  approaching  his  fifteenth  birthday.  Always  robust 
and  active,  he  early  developed  a  taste  for  athletic  exer- 
cises, and  with  his  physical  development  his  vigorous 
mental  powers  kept  pace.  He  loved  manly  sports,  and 
under  skilful  training,  carried  remarkable  thoughtfulness 
and  readiness  into  all  the  pursuits  that  in  later  years  be- 
come the  accomplishments  of  manliness.  He  was  an 
admirable  rider,  an  adept  almost  beyond  his  years  in 
field-sports.  It  deserves  to  be  recalled  with  melancholy 
interest  that  on  their  way  down  the  river,  on  the  fatal 
trip,  he  playfully  described  to  his  father  his  experiences 
in  the  summer  of  1872,  when  on  a  gunning  excursion,  he 
swam  across  the  same  stream  four  times  successively,  car- 
rying dry,  in  one  hand  above  his  head,  his  gun,  sports- 
man's apparatus  and  apparel.  At  another  season  this 
disaster,  so  fatal  in  termination,  would  have  been  deemed 
a  slight  misadventure,  to  be  dismissed  with  a  laugh. 
With   all    his    boyish    activity,  there  were    abundant    and 


106  ARTHUR    MASON    ARNOLD. 

notable  indications  of  the  more  sterling  traits  that  fore- 
cast usefulness.  He  was  well  advanced  in  preparation 
for  college,  with  an  aptitude  for  mechanics  that  fore- 
shadowed a  practical  turn  in  his  future  professional 
acquirements.  He  built  his  boat  patiently  after  draw- 
ings of  his  own,  and  named  her  the  "Water  Witch,"  from 
his  recent  reading  of  Cooper's  novels.  Mental  and  physi- 
cal activity  were  evenly  balanced.  His  moral  nature  re- 
sponded to  careful  culture  of  excellent  native  traits.  It 
is  his  father's  remark  to  the  writer  that  "there  is  not  one 
painful  recollection  associated  with  his  whole  life  but  the 
last.  Dutiful,  truthful,  faithful,  guileless,  modest,  manly, 
firm,  there  is  not,  until  its  closing  hour,  one  unpleasant  or 
painful  incident  connected  with  his  memory."  Is  it  not  a 
life's  reward  to  have  earned  such  testimony  though  the 
record  closes  at  fifteen?  As  they  were  floating  down  the 
river  to  the  treacherous  eddy  where  destiny  waited  for 
him,  the  son  pleasantly  said,  "An  epic  poem  must  be  writ- 
ten describing  the  cruise  of  the  'Water  Witch.'  Father, 
our  next  sail  together  must  be  on  Lake  Geneva,  Switzer- 
land." A  few  minutes  later  he  crossed  alone  the  dark 
river  of  death. 

The  funeral  was  attended  on  Wednesday,  April  30th, 
at  ten  o'clock,  in  St.  James'  Church,  Chicago,  Rev.  Arthur 
Brooks,  the  rector  of  that  parish,  officiating.  The  school- 
companions  of  Arthur  were  present  in  a  bod)',  and    the 


MEMORIAL.  107 

large  concourse  of  friends  attested  wide-spread  grief  and 
sympathy.  The  remains  will  rest  in  the  family  lot  at 
Graceland  Cemetery.  Few  human  lives,  even  the  longest, 
win  better  rewards  than  the  treasures  of  lasting  affection 
and  honored  memory.  A  career  ended  in  boyhood  is  not 
in  vain  when  it  bears  so  full  a  record  as  that  which  em- 
balms the  name  of  Arthur  Mason  Arnold. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  MR.  ARNOLD'S  JOURNAL. 

The  death  of  his  son  was  the  great  sorrow  of  Mr. 
Arnold's  life;  while  he  bore  it  with  fortitude,  as  he  bravely 
entered  again  into  life's  work,  it  cast  a  shadow  over  his 
remaining  years.  It  has  seemed  fitting  to  commemorate 
thus  together  the  father  and  the  son,  who  were  in  life  so 
closely  united. 

The  following  extracts  are  taken  from  Mr.  Arnold's 
journal : 

"May,  1873. — The  saddest  and  most  painful  event  of 
my  life  is  told  in  the  annexed  memorial.  The  incidents 
are,  I  think,  substantially  correct  in  the  last  account.  Alas! 
why  could  I  not  have  saved  him  ?  The  question  comes 
again  and  again:  Did  I  do  all  I  could  ? 

"  Prof.  Swing,  in  the  most  feeling  note  of  sympathy 
writes:  'Do  not  feel  that  the  event  might  have  been 
avoided.       *       *       *       Your  separation  from  your  son, 


108  ARTHUR    MASON   ARNOLD. 

your  heavy  boat,  the  flowing  stream,  the  wind,  the  chilling 
water,  were  all  a  part  of  the  plan.  It  was  not  you,  it  was 
not  Arthur,  it  was  God  calling  one  more  child  home.' 

"  I  will  try  to  think  so.  And  now  I  consecrate  myself 
to  God.  Oh,  for  help  to  live  a  Christian  life!  Once  more 
I  will  try,  and  oh,  Father  in  heaven,  help  me." 

"Jan.  ist,  1876. — dropped  a  sprig  of  evergreen  upon 
the  grave  of  Arthur.  Brave,  modest,  manly.  The  moss 
is  growing  upon  the  cross  that  lays  upon  the  turf  under 
which  his  bones  repose.  But  in  my  heart  he  is  ever  pres- 
ent. At  his  grave  I  made  resolutions  for  the  coming  year; 
will  they  be  broken  like  others?  or  shall  the  brief  remain- 
der of  life  be  what  I  would  have  it.  I  resolved  there  I 
would  try,  and  henceforth  I  will  make  a  record  each  Sunday 
morning  of  the  week.  A  more  active  life.  I  will  try  now 
at  once  to  execute  my  literary  plans.  I  think  to  keep  all 
my  resolutions  would  result  in  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  health.     Let  the  residue  of  life  be  more  for  others." 

"Oct.  15th,  1874. — Today  I  found  these  lines,  which 
seem  to  me  so  well  to  describe  Arthur: 

"'He  lived  to  be  simple,  modest,  manly,  true.'" 

"Aug.  31st,  1879. — If  I  felt  sure  that  my  life  of  Bene- 
dict Arnold  would  be  a  decided  success,  I  would,  I  think, 
dedicate  it  as  follows: 

"  To    the    memory   of   a    brave,   noble    boy,    my    son 


EXTRACTS    FROM    MR.    ARNOLD'S   JOURNAL.  109 

Arthur,  I  dedicate  this  book.  Had  he  lived,  he  would,  I 
believe,  have  done  something  to  redeem  the  name  of 
Arnold  from  the  infamy  brought  upon  it  by  the  subject 
of  the  followincr  narrative.  I.   N.  ARNOLD." 


EXTRACTS. 
[From  the  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,  Monday,  April  28,  iS"j^.\ 

The  sad  news  reached  the  family  of  Hon.  Isaac  N. 
Arnold,  at  their  residence,  No.  104  Pine  Street,  in  the 
Xorth  Division,  at  a  late  hour  on  Saturday  evening,  that 
their  only  son,  Arthur  Mason  Arnold,  a  lad  of  fifteen,  of 
unusual  promise,  was  drowned  in  Rock  River  on  Saturday 
afternoon,  April  26.  The  brief  and  heart-rending  intelli- 
gence was  confirmed,  and  made  even  more  affecting  in  its 
nature  by  the  full  and  distressing  particulars  of  the  event 
brought  to  this  city  yesterday  morning  by  a  gentleman 
from  Dixon,  a  friend  of  the  family,  a  special  messenger, 
with  tidings  more  melancholy  in  their  purport  than  are 
usual  in  the  visitations  of  human  households. 

Mr.  Arnold  and  his  family  have,  for  some  months, 
been  preparing  for  an  extended  tour  in  Europe,  and  their 
arrangements  were  made  and  berths  secured  in  the  ill- 
fated  Atlantic,  of  the  White- Star  Line.  The  appalling 
disaster  to  that  steamer  deferred  Mr.  Arnold's  departure, 
which,  however,  was  soon  to  take  place.      The  residence 


110  ARTHUR    MASON    ARNOLD. 

had  been  rented  to  E.  H.  Sheldon,  Esq.,  and  the  final 
matters  were  being  disposed  of  for  immediate  departure. 

Mr.  Arnold  owns  a  farm  on  the  Rock  River,  near 
Dixon,  which  he  has  made  the  home  of  a  relative.  It  has 
been  a  familiar  sight  in  our  streets,  Mr.  Arnold  and  his 
beautiful  boy,  mounted  on  a  gray  steed  and  a  gray  pony, 
and  many  have  turned  on  our  thoroughfares  to  mark  the 
pair  as  they  were  taking  their  rides  together.  The  horses 
were  to  be  sent  to  the  Dixon  farm  to  be  kept  during  the 
tour  in  Europe,  and  Mr.  Arnold  and  his  son  went  out  on 
Friday  to  see  the  pets  disposed  of  and  bid  farewell  to 
friends.  For  some  weeks  past  Arthur,  whose  inventive 
and  mechanical  turn  of  mind  his  fond  parent  had  encour- 
aged, had  been  building  a  small  boat  with  his  own  hands 
in  the  yard  at  his  home  in  this  city,  and  was  very  proud 
of  his  achievement.  The  craft  was  a  sail -boat,  and  was 
fitted  up  throughout  by  the  boy  with  such  advice  and 
study  as  he  could  bring  to  bear  in  the  task.  The  little 
craft  was  finished,  and  the  kind  parent  consented  that  it 
should  be  put  on  board  the  cars,  to  be  left  for  safe-keep- 
ing at  Dixon.  In  the  mysterious  dispensation  of  Provi- 
dence it  was  an  instrument  of  fate  that  has  plunged  the 
family  and  a  wide  circle  of  friends  in  grief. 

Through  our  informant  from  Dixon  (above  referred 
to),  we  learn  some  particulars  of  the  sad  casualty.  Arthur, 
boy-like,  was  eager  to  try  his  sail-boat.     Mr.  Arnold  con- 


NEWSPAPER    EXTRACTS.  I  I  I 

sented,  but  for  safety  took  a  large,  clumsy,  flat-bottomed 
skiff,  and  attempted  to  keep  with  his  son.  A  flaw  of  wind 
carried  Arthur's  craft  suddenly  to  a  considerable  distance, 
and  then  overturned  it.  The  Rock  River  was  running  a 
full  spring  current,  icy  cold.  The  lad  bravely  clung  to  his 
capsized  skiff,  and  seemed  to  hold  it  strongly.  Agonized 
by  his  peril,  the  father  made  every  exertion  with  his  clumsy 
boat  to  reach  his  son  but  the  wind  being  against  him,  and 
his  son  not  far  from  the  bank,  Mr.  Arnold  jumped  ashore, 
ran  along  the  bank,  seized  a  heavy  plank  and  floated  it 
out  toward  Arthur,  who  sank,  chilled,  before  reaching  it. 
The  boy  was  recovered  after  several  hours  research,  but 
beyond  resuscitation.  It  would  be  an  idle  and  ungracious 
task  to  seek  to  add  a  line  to  paint  the  anguish  of  the 
blow,  sad  to  all,  but  saddest  to  the  most  loving  of  fathers, 
whose  son  thus  perished  before  his  eyes. 

A  few  family  friends  went  out  to  Dixon  last  evening 
to  meet  Mr.  Arnold  and  pay  the  mournful  tribute  of  con- 
dolence in  his  great  affliction.  This  party  return  today 
with  the  remains  of  the  bright  and  noble  boy,  who,  a  few 
hours  since,  so  full  of  hope  and  life,  went  out  to  place  his 
pet  poii}'  and  boat  in  good-keeping  while  he  was  abroad. 
The  funeral  will  occur  on  Wednesday. 

The  event  has  caused  a  profound  sensation  among 
the  numerous  friends  of  the  family  in  this  city.  It  is 
mysterious  that  a  life  so  bright  in  its  promise  should  have 


112  ARTHUR    MASON    ARNOLD. 

closed  thus  sadly.  And  yet  may  we  not  add  that  it  is 
within  human  experience  that  among  those  who  mourn 
with  Mr.  Arnold  and  his  house  there  will  be  some  who  in 
after- years  will  envy  this  stricken  family  the  cherished 
memory  and  green  billow  of  turf  that  are  all  that  will 
remain  of  Arthur  as  compared  with  the  blighted  life  of 
some  worse  defeat  of  boyish  promise  in  their  own  house- 
holds. It  is  a  gift  from  Heaven  to  have  loved  and  lost 
such  a  son. 


[Fro///  ///c  Chicago  Daily  Tribune,   Tuesday,  April 29,  iSjj.] 

The  many  friends  of  Hon.  I.  N.  Arnold  will  have,  a 
melancholy  interest  in  the  details  of  the  calamity  an- 
nounced in  yesterday's  Tribune,  which  has  deprived  him 
of  an  only  son,  and  thrown  a  dark  shadow  over  his  newly- 
established  home  and  the  plan  of  his  foreign  tour. 

Mr.  Arnold  and  his  son  arrived  at  Dixon  on  Friday 
evening,  and  spent  the  night  at  the  hotel.  In  the  morn- 
ing Arthur  launched  his  boat,  and  he  and  his  father  went 
in  it  down  the  river  to  the  farm,  about  three  miles.  After 
dinner,  the  boy  was  desirous  to  try  his  boat  again,  having 
meanwhile  fitted  the  mast  and  sail,  and  the  father,  anxious 
for  his  safety,  accompanied  him  in  another  boat — a  scow — 
with  but  one  perfect  oar.  The  breeze  had  freshened  and 
Arthur  was  in  high  glee,  tacking  back  and  forth  many 
times  across  Rock  River,  which  bounds  Mr.  Arnold's  farm 


NEWSPAPER    EXTRACTS.  I  I  3 

for  over  a  mile,  and  is  here  nearly  600  feet  wide,  and  at 
this  time  swollen  with  the  spring  flood.  The  boy  was 
much  pleased  with  the  sailing  qualities  of  the  boat,  the 
work  of  his  own  hands  throughout,  and  as  he  was  passing 
his  father,  swung  his  hat  around  his  head  and  shouted, 
"Catch  me  if  you  can!  isn't  this  jolly?"  After  indulging 
in  this  sport  for  some  time,  his  father  suggested  that  per- 
haps they  had  better  go  ashore,  to  which  Arthur  replied, 
"I  will  take  one  more  turn  first." 

This  time  he  took  a  longer  reach,  and  Mr.  Arnold, 
who  for  a  moment  was  attending  to  his  own  boat,  on  look- 
ing down  the  river  saw  that  his  son's  boat  had  capsized 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  and  that  he  was  cling- 
ing to  the  bottom.  He  at  once  attempted  to  reach  him 
with  the  scow,  but  the  wind  was  blowing  strongly  up  the 
river,  and  after  using  his  utmost  efforts  for  perhaps  ten 
minutes,  he  found  that  he  was  making  no  headway,  and 
he  therefore  turned  to  the  shore,  reaching  which  he  ran 
along  the  bank,  throwing  off  his  coat  as  he  went. 

Meanwhile  he  attempted  to  hail  Arthur,  but  the  dis- 
tance and  head-wind  probably  prevented  the  latter  from 
hearing  his  voice.  Arthur,  however,  called,  asking  his 
father  to  come,  but  in  a  quiet,  firm  tone,  indicating  entire 
self-possession.  Arthur  was  fifteen,  large  for  his  age, 
strong,  and  an  excellent  swimmer.  He  had  often  told  his 
father   what    he   would   do   under   precisely   such   circum- 


114  ARTHUR    MASON    ARNOLD. 

stances,  and  while  the  latter  was  running  down  the  bank, 
he  saw  the  boy  pull  off  his  coat  and  strike  for  the  shore. 
He  swam  rapidly,  and  had  made  about  two-thirds  of  the 
distance  when  his  father  arrived  opposite  to  him,  and  seiz- 
ing a  plank,  plunged  into  the  water.  The  strong  wind 
against  the  current  caused  quite  a  heavy  swell,  and  the 
father  could  only  see  his  son  as  he  rose  on  the  crests  of 
the  waves.  When  he  last  saw  Arthur,  the  lad  seemed  not 
to  be  using  his  arms,  but  to  be  standing  erect  in  the  water. 
Mr.  Arnold  swam  rapidly  toward  the  point  where  his  son 
was  last  seen,  but  Arthur  had  disappeared. 

Just  here  the  river  deepens,  with  a  rocky  ledge  de- 
scending abruptly,  causing  a  strong  undertow,  which,  with 
the  current,  taxed  all  Mr.  Arnold's  strength.  The  water 
was  turbid,  so  that  it  was  impossible  to  see  beneath  the 
surface.  Mr.  Arnold,  with  an  agony  that  can  not  be  pic- 
tured, searched  for  his  son,  but  could  not  find  him.  Prob- 
ably after  the  lad  sank,  he  did  not  rise  again  to  the  sur- 
face. The  father  instantly  gave  the  alarm  and  dispatched 
a  man  on  horseback  to  the  village,  two  miles  distant,  and 
in  an  incredibly  short  time  very  many  citizens  were  on  the 
ground,  active  in  exploring  the  angry  and  turbid  waters, 
while  physicians  made  ready  all  the  appliances  for  the  re- 
susciation,  should  the  opportunity  offer  ;  but  all  in  vain. 
It  was  not  until  'seven  o'clock  that  the  body  was  found 
some    distance    from   where    Arthur   was    last    seen,   in    a 


NEWSPAPER    EXTRAC  rS.  1  15 

crevice  in  the  rocks,  in  almost  eight  feet  of  water,  the  arms 
drawn  up  as  if  he  had  been  seized  with  cramp. 

When  last  seen  by  his  father,  the  boy  was  only  a  few 
rods  from  him,  but  being  disabled  by  the  excessive  cold, 
the  undertow  undoubtedly  drew  the  unfortunate  lad  under 
and  whirled  him  rapidly  down  the  river. 

The  frantic  grief  of  the  father  can  only  be  imagined. 
The  remains  arrived  in  this  city  Monday  afternoon,  and 
were  borne  to  his  father's  house  by  some  of  his  young 
companions  and  school-mates. 


